Target to enroll 30 percent of eligible students in colleges by 2020 - Sibal

New Delhi: Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday told Parliament thatthe government has set a target of ensuring that 30 percent of eligible students should attend college by 2020.

At present, 220 million students go to schools across the country and only 12.4 percent of them are eligible to go to colleges. By the year 2020, the gross involvement ratio has to be increased up to 30 percent, he said while replying to a debate in Lok Sabha on the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2009.

The bill, moved by the minister on Monday aiming to set up two central universities in Jammu and Kashmir, was later passed by voice vote.

Sibal stressed the need to exponentially expand theuniversity education system and called for a national effort to achieve this goal. "The house should think in terms of next generation," he said.

He said the government has not meted out any discrimination towards any states on allotting 12 central universities, which the government plans to set up across the country.

Asking each state government to identify four or five sites with 500 acres of land to set up the central universities, Sibal said an expert committee would decide the place where the institution could be set up.

The minister, however, opposed the idea of setting up central universities in remote areas where there is no connectivity.

He said the government has already allocated central universities to Karnataka,Orissa, Punjab and Tamil Nadu - states being ruled by non-Congress governments - and the Congress-ruled state of Haryana.

The minister said if the government had political consideration, it would not have allocated central universities to the states being ruled by non-Congress governments.

Sibal, who urged the MPs to set aside political differences, also called for "quality" in the field of university education.

"We need to set up a benchmark (through the central universities)," said the minister, adding that the state universities should also follow suit.

"This is not a quantitative exercise. This is a qualitative exercise," the minister said.

Justifying the government's decision to set up two central universities in Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said it was "for the sake of the people and for the sake of peace and unity".

source: indiaedunews.net

IIT Delhi helping Ethiopia become tech-savvy

New Delhi: Many students in Ethiopia are studyingengineering and technology in virtual classrooms, some of their teachers seating in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) which is helping that country become tech-savvy.

The idea to empower Ethiopia's university students was mooted by its ambassador to India and even its prime minister was eager to have an association with IIT Delhi.

"The Ethiopian government is making a rapid expansions in education but it doesn't have the required infrastructure. The ambassador talked to us and then the process moved. Even their prime minister was very eager for this association," M. Balakrishnan, dean of post-graduate studies at IIT Delhi, told sources on Sunday.

"They want to churn out tech-savvy students and here we are playing a role. We have designed four courses for the Addis Ababa University," said Balakrishnan, who is the key official in this project.

He said two courses - construction technology andmanagement, and chemical engineering - have been taught for a semester. The other two courses - computer engineering and manufacturingengineering - will complete their first semester in a couple of months.

"Initially, we have a four-year agreement with Ethiopia. Our job is to develop curriculum, set up a laboratory, give teachings both through virtual classroom and face-to-face mode. We are also responsible for students' evaluation. But the degree will be awarded by the Addis Ababa University," said Balakrishnan, a senior professor in the school of computer science at the IIT.

He said that Ehtiopia has set a target of producing 10,000 science and engineeringstudents at the higher education level in next five years or so, and for this it has availed of the expertise of the IIT-Delhi as one of the partners. It wants to become technology-savvy and "we are facilitating that".

The elite institute is delivering the courses via a two-way video/audio link. "This helps make interaction two-way and participatory. Students ask questions and we answer them while sitting in our institute," explained Balakrishnan.

At least 46 faculty members are involved in the project and the IIT-Delhi offers up to 70 hours per week of instructions. There are around 50 students in each semester in each course.

"During every semester, the chief instructors of all subjects go to Ethiopia once to teach students in person. The whole idea is to make the learning process better and smoother. We are happy with the outcome so far," he added.

Source: indiaedunews.net