(a) whether the Government has held discussion recently with the State Governments for
improving the standard of education;
(b) if so, the details thereof alongwith the decision taken in this regard;
(c) if not, the reasons therefor; and
(d) the steps taken by the Union Government for strengthening the education sector?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SMT. D. PURANDESWARI)
(a): Yes, Sir.
(b)&(c): A meeting was held with Chief Secretaries of the Stateson 22.04.2008 to discuss
various issues involved in theimplementation of new initiatives in education envisaged in
the eleventh plan.
(d): In the XIth Plan as approved by the National Development Council, Plan allocation for
the Ministry of Human Resource Development has been raised to Rs. 269873 crores as compared
to the actual expenditure of about Rs. 58817 crores during Xth Plan which is about 4.6 times
increase over the Xth Plan. The XIth Plan among other things envisages the following new
initiatives :-
i) A centrally sponsored scheme for Universalisation of access to and improvement of quality
of education at secondary stage (SUCCESS) with the objective to make secondary education of
good quality available, accessible and affordable to all young persons by providing a
secondary school within five kilometres of every habitation.
ii) Rapid up gradation of 15,000 Upper Primary Schools to Secondary Schools and expansion
of intake capacity in 44,000 existing Secondary Schools;
iii) Establishment of 6000 high quality model schools at block level to serve as benchmarks
for excellence in secondary schooling. About 3500 of these will be public- funded schools
while 2500 would be through public-private partnership;
iv) Provision for laboratories/libraries and also strengthening of the existing facilities
available;
v) Continuous teacher training;
vi) Provision for hostels and residential schools for girls; and
vii) A more liberal approach on the part of State Government on allowing private schools to
be set up to meet the large unmet demand for quality education.
Other initiatives for modernising Higher Education include -
i)30 new Central Universities (CUs) - 16 CUs one each in uncovered States and 14 CUs aiming
at World-class Standards;
ii) Establishment of 370 new degree colleges in districts with Gross Enrolment Ratio less
than the national average;
iii) Strengthening of 6000 colleges and 150 Universities not receiving UGC grant at present
iv) Setting up of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University with main campus at Amarkantak in
Madhya Pradesh
v)8 New IITs, 20 New IIITs in PPP mode and 10 New NITs
vi) 3 New IISERs at Mohali (Punjab), Pune and Kolkata – have become functional and two more
at Tiruvanthapuram, and Bhopal – will commence their session in August 2008.
vii) 7 New IIMs including one IIM at Shillong, Meghalaya which has been established
viii) 2 New Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
ix) Setting up of 1000 (300 in Government Sector, 300 in Public Private Partnership
(PPP) mode and 400 in Private Sector) new Polytechnics.