‘Education reform must for growth’
The pre-Budget Economic Survey released on Friday has called for better implementation of government policies and reform in the education sector to help make the young population of India a part of its growth story.
The Economic Survey for 2010-11 tabled in Parliament calls for implementation of the Right to Education Act and for bringing about reforms in not only higher education institutes but also the regulatory structures of the education system. “The RTE Act must face no implementation deficit for it to work towards realising the demographic dividend,” it said.
The realisation of the demographic dividend of having a young population is another factor that calls for reforms in the education and health sector. “Reaping the demographic dividend needs a vision, a long-term plan, and bold decisions,” the survey said.
The survey called for reforms in universities and in higher education and the demand-supply mismatch in the job-market needs to be corrected. It recognised that generating funds for higher education was a challenge and suggested a public-private partnership mode for promotion of higher education. There are also challenges for maintaining quality and excellence while ensuring rapid expansion of the sector. The survey has also pointed out that attracting good faculty in adequate numbers to meet the demands of the rapidly expanding sector would also be a challenge. Governments steps towards setting up of new higher education institutions like IIMs, IITs, NITs, and IIITs have also been lauded. Setting up of model degree colleges in educationally backward districts of the country has also been noted. The role of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in bringing down the number of out-of-school children has also been lauded which has been pegged at 81.5 lakh in 2009, down from 134.6 lakh in 2005.
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