Friday, March 09, 2007

 

Higher and Tech education in the 2007 budget

IN THE FIELD OF HIGHER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION THE OVERALL INCREASE IN THE BUDGET IS OF THE ORDER OF 156 PER CENT - ARJUN SINGH

PROVISION OF RS. 502 CRORES FOR NATIONAL MISSION FOR EDUCATION
18:39 IST

Shri Arjun Singh, Union Minister for Human Resource Development has said ‘that access to education is of utmost importance for educational advancement of disadvantaged sections. The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act has, therefore, been enacted and has been notified in January, 2007 in pursuance of the 93rd Amendment to the Constitution of India, to provide statutory reservations to SCs, STs and OBCs in Central Educational Institutions. Necessary resources, to the extent of Rs.2698 crores, have been proposed to be provided to the Central Educational Institutions in 2007-08, to augment their intake capacity in accordance with the Act, ensuring that reservations would not lead to any reduction in the seats as were available to unreserved categories before the coming into force of this Enactment.’

Besides this, a provision of Rs.502 crores has also been made for National Mission for Education through ICT and Distance Learning. A substantial portion of this money would be used to provide high speed interconnectivity between 84 Central Educational and Research Institutions and for developing the e-course content.

Shri Arjun Singh has further stated that in the field of higher & technical education the increase is of 156 per cent. Here is the full text of the opening remarks in the press briefing on Central Budget of HRD (2007-08) here today:-

“I am happy to be able to meet with all of you. I have been wanting to do so, and the Annual Plan 2007-08 provides us with an occasion.

Colleagues in the press have already written about the increases in our sectoral outlay in the Annual Plan. The education cess has been raised from the present 2% to 3% on all central taxes. As you know the 2% cess had been used to fund Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid-day Meal Scheme and the additional 1% is to support funding of Secondary and Higher education. The overall increase in the Literacy, Primary and Secondary sectors is of the order of 22.4%over the previous year. In the field of Higher and Technical education, the increase is of 156%. We have not yet reached the target of 6% of GDP, but these are steps towards that goal.

I shall now briefly touch upon some of the highlights of the performance of the Ministry and some proposed initiatives in the Field of education.

With the vigorous implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the cooked Mid Day Meal (MDM Scheme), the number of out of school children has come down to less than 5% of the total population in the age group of 6 to 14 years i.e. from 4.4 crores in 2001-02 to 70 lakhs in 2006. FM has proposed a provision of Rs.10,671 crores for SSA in the Annual Plan of 2007-08.

The Mid Day Meal Scheme was revised in mid 2006. Under the revised scheme nutritional norms have been raised from the existing 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein to minimum 450 calories and 12 grams of protein per child. To facilitate this, Central assistance towards cooking cost, has been raised from existing Rs. 1 to Rs.1.50 per child per school day with mandatory contribution of Rs.0.50 per child by States, making the overall cost norm of Rs.2 per child per day. In the case of North-Eastern States, the sharing pattern is 90:10 between the Centre and States. A total of Rs. 7,324 crores has been proposed to be provided for the scheme in 2007-08. This will include provision for Mid-day-meal at upper primary stage in 3427 Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) in the country

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Scheme, under which 1000 new schools have been approved during the current year, besides the 1180 approved earlier, provides residential education to girls predominantly belonging to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities for whom 75% of the total seats are earmarked.

Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), and Jawahar NavodayaVidyalayas (JNVs) have been recognized as setting the standards for the secondary education in the country. There are 919 functional KVs and 539 functional JNVs. 50 new KVs and 28 new JNVs have been approved in 2006-07.

The outlay for Secondary education in 2007-08 has been proposed to be raised by 191% over the current year, to Rs. 3,164 crores. This is to start the process of expanding access to secondary schools for the huge numbers who are successfully completing elementary school education. We will look both at expanding capacity in existing schools and at opening schools in unserved areas.

Access to education is of utmost importance for educational advancement of disadvantaged sections. The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act has, therefore, been enacted and has been notified in January, 2007 in pursuance of the 93rd Amendment to the Constitution of India, to provide statutory reservations to SCs, STs and OBCs in Central Educational Institutions. Necessary resources, to the extent of Rs.2698 crores, have been proposed to be provided to the Central Educational Institutions in 2007-08, to augment their intake capacity in accordance with the Act, ensuring that reservations would not lead to any reduction in the seats as were available to unreserved categories before the coming into force of this Enactment. Besides this, a provision of Rs.502 crores has also been made for National Mission for Education through ICT and Distance Learning. A substantial portion of this money would be used to provide high speed interconnectivity between 84 Central Educational and Research Institutions and for developing the e-course content.

The University Grants Commission had been given a Plan Budget of Rs.1269 crore in 2006-07, itself a substantial increase of over 68% over 2005-06 allocations, enabling increased assistance to Universities in general and the Central Universities in the North East in particular. This has been proposed to be raised in 2007-08 to Rs. 2373 crores which includes increased allocation of Rs.1218 crores for the State Universities and Rs.576 crores for the implementations of capacity in areas in Central Universities by 54%. It is our earnest hope that this will enable UGC funded Central institutions to begin the process of increasing capacity.

Four new Central Universities have been created during 2006 through Acts of Parliament. Arunachal Pradesh (Rajiv Gandhi National University) and Tripura University have been converted from State Universities into Central Universities, while a new University of Sikkim has been created. The Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages has been converted into a Central University. Now all States in the North East have a Central University each. A total of six Central Universities have been created (including the Allahabad University and Manipur University which were created by converting the existing State Universities) since the UPA Govt. assumed office.

The seven IITs and six IIMs have served the country extremely well and have done us proud. It is now proposed to establish 3 new IITs in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan for which the Annual Plan 2007-08 has proposed to provide Rs. 80 crores. It has also been decided to establish a 7th IIM at Shillong in the North East for which a provision of Rs. 6 crores has been made. Two new Schools of Planning and Architecture are also proposed to be started at Vijaywada and Bhopal and a token provision of Rs. 1 crore in each case has been provided. In addition to the existing Indian Institute of Information Technology at Gwalior, Allahabad and Jabalpur under the Government of India, a new IIIT (Design and Manufacturing) has been approved to be established at Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. Proposals have been submitted to the Planning Commission for starting 20 new IIITs so as to cover each major State. Planning Commission has suggested that these could be considered under the Public-Private Participation mode.

Erstwhile Regional Engineering Colleges/ Government Engineering Colleges have been converted into National Institutes of Technology (NITs) with changes in their governance structure. There are 20 NITs at present. In order to bring all of them under an umbrella legislation, the NIT Bill had been introduced in Parliament. We have since then received the Report of the Parliament Standing Committee and Cabinet approval has been obtained for introducing the official amendments based on the Standing Committee Report. We have increased the Annual Plan outlay for NITs to Rs. 893 crores, to also cover the proposed increase in capacity.

There is an urgent need to revamp polytechnic education in the country. The annual intake in polytechnics is approximately 50% of the intake in the degree level engineering institutions, though this ratio should be many more times the other way round. We have provided Rs. 50 crores for new polytechnics and for upgradation of polytechnics in specially identified districts, and Rs. 20 crore for the community polytechnics in the Annual Plan.

In order to build scientific research institutions of the highest standards in which teaching and research at the under-graduate and post-graduate levels will be undertaken in an integrated manner, two Indian Institutes of Scientific Education and Research (IISERs) have already started functioning at Kolkata and Pune. A third IISER is being set up at Mohali (Punjab) and two more have been proposed at Bhopal and Thiruvanathapuram. We have provided Rs. 125 crores for the IISERs in the Annual Plan. It is hoped that over a period of time, IISERs will attain the eminence of IISc, Bangalore and put India in the forefront of scientific research in the world. We have also proposed to increase the outlay to IISc. to Rs.196 crores both to enable the institution to increase its capacity for implementing OBC reservations and to commemorate the centenary of that fine institution.”

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