Kapil Sibal bats for quality education

"When India attained Independence, only 14-15% of the population of 300 million was literate and today 74% of our billion plus population are literate. Today, we have 45 million graduates in the country and hardly 1-2% skilled labour force."

Kapil Sibal, Union minister for human resource development, who made these worthy observations in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, was greeted with thunderous applause by a packed auditorium. 
Sibal was in the city on Tuesday for the the 31st Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture. He spoke on 'Education and Social Change'.

In his lecture, Sibal highlighted the fact that the mindset of the people needs to be changed to improve the quality of education.

"Human minds should be free and open. The ecosystem in which educational institutions are allowed to function, where the syllabus and the children are allowed to think beyond classrooms, that is the way forward, that should be brought in to improve education," Sibal said.

Sharing some figures about India and education, he said that out of 100 children, only 18 complete their schooling and 14 million of the total population finish their graduation. "With such figures, where are we heading?" asked Sibal. He further explained the difference between developing and developed countries; that in the latter growth enrolment ratio (GER) is high, which India needs to achieve. Also, Right to Education has a great role to play in increasing the GER.

About the Indian population and its institutions, he shared that the present Indian population is served by only 30,000 universities and institutions.

"So, if the GER has to be increased, we need 45,000 more colleges and institutions to keep up with the population. This means that more investment in education is required."

He further spoke about his plans to set up a National Vocational Qualification Centre, which will have 10 levels of certification. "I have been working on it for one and half years and will launch it in a month. The purpose of this is to free the mind of the students and increase the choice for the children. In this qualifying centre, the 10th level will be equal to a doctorate."

On maintaining the quality of education, he said that a uniform framework is important.

"This is where the semester system would help, which institutions all across India should implement, or else how will the students connect with each other? Hence, at the policy level itself, the institutions need to get together and decide on a common path for the students."