Q: In education, especially higher education so critical to India and its future, there has been little progress. Regulatory controls, corruption, lack of competition, etc continue to plague the sector…
A: There’s absolutely no doubt that a comprehensive reform of the regulatory structure of both the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is necessary. There has been a revolution in the way knowledge is imparted in the rest of the world and the structures we have were set up 30-40 years ago. In the Eleventh Plan, we had said we should undertake a comprehensive review. The government has actually appointed a committee to review both the UGC and the AICTE. We have representatives on that committee and I hope its report will give us some view on how we should move forward.
Q: Committees and more committees… Are we not running out of time?
A: I agree that we need to speed things up. The Eleventh Plan clearly states that we need to reform higher education, bring in the private sector, give more autonomy to universities and review the regulatory structure. So, pursuant to that, the human resource development (HRD) ministry has set up a committee. So yes, it takes a year, but you have to remember, institutional change in Indian education is a process that will take 10 years. I don’t believe that by signing some order you can sort things out in just one year. This is a long-term issue.
... contd.
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