Sibal for autonomous colleges,asks states to come up with Vision 2020

In an attempt to facilitate setting up of quality institutes and allowing excellence to be nurtured,the Human Resource Development Ministry is working on a plan to allow setting up of autonomous colleges. These colleges will be allowed to function free of affiliation to any university or even if a college is affiliated,it will have the right to opt out provided it comes up with higher benchmarks and quality standards. The ministry is considering that such an autonomous college be made a university by itself,conditional upon its achieving a certain academic standard,said HRD minister Kapil Sibal.

Speaking at the conference of state education secretaries on higher and technical education,Sibal asked all states to increase their investments in education and come up with a comprehensive Vision 2020 roadmap on their states education policies within three months. Exhorting state governments to increase their funding towards education,Sibal asked all states to submit Vision 2020 plan for their education departments within three months. This exhaustive vision document,he said must come with details of investment,the efforts towards improving education quality,the need to get good faculty and ensuring equity with quality.

The 15 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) target for the 11th plan is too little and at 5 per cent growth rate,we cannot compete. The global average is 27 per cent and in the developed world it is 50-70 per cent. The sub-Saharan average is 6 per cent. At 10 per cent we are not far away from sub-Saharan figures. If we do not increase our GER by 30 per cent by 2020,we are in real trouble, Sibal said.