A Turning Point in the History of Indian Education

2008 has indeed been special for the education sector. The government introduced a range of initiatives and decisions at the policy level. Most of them were introduced with the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-11) in mind, which aims to provide education in terms of "access, equity and quality." Though the policy issues on the sixth pay commission, the introduction of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota, the hurried launch of institutes like the Indian Institutes of Technology and the introduction of certain clauses in the Right to Education bill encountered opposition, the year otherwise witnessed quite a few positive initiatives.

"In fact, after independence, 2008 has been a watershed in the history of Indian education. The government has made an earnest attempt to make the Right to free and compulsory education a fundamental right for children up to the age of 14," said Bhalchandra Mungekar, member, Planning Commission.

Budget allocation

The education budget witnessed a 20% increase - from an allocated budget of Rs 28,674 crore in 2007-08 - to Rs 34,400 crore in 2008-09. The then finance minister, P. C h i d a m b a r a m , mentioned in his budget speech that education and health are the twin pillars on which "rests the edifice of social sector reforms." Sukhadeo Thorat, chairman, University Grants C o m m i s s i o n (UGC), said: "The best thing is that we have started recognising the importance of education. The policies that were introduced this year focused on promoting higher education."

Right to Education

The Union Cabinet cleared the Right to Education Bill and passed it as a law. "It took us so long to make free and compulsory education a fundamental right. Even in 2002, it failed to get the clearing. The government has now made it mandatory. One of the major challenges will be to implement it and get the stakeholders, academia, government, private players, students and parents to work in tandem," said Mungekar. However, the clause preventing schools from making a child repeat a year or expelling a student before he or she is in class VIII, met with much opposition.

More schools

For better access to education, a plan to build new schools was introduced. The government allocated Rs 13,100 crore for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Chidambaram said that the focus of SSA would shift from access and infrastructure at the primary level to enhancing retention and improving the quality of learning. A proposal to set up a model school programme, with the aim of establishing 6,000 high quality model schools, was also initiated. The government set aside Rs 130 crore in 2008-09 for this purpose.

Boost to Girl education

Education for the girl child received a major boost. A fund in the union budget (as part of SSA) was allocated to set up an additional 410 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its approval for implementation of the centrally sponsored scheme  for 'Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education' with a total incurring expenditure of Rs 1,500 crore during the 11th five year plan.

OBC quota

The government proposed to introduce the OBC quota in Central educational institutions, including IIMs and IITs. After much resistance, the Supreme Court upheld the OBC quota that paved the way for a 27% reservation for 'backward' castes over a three-year period from the academic year 2008-09. It has decided to keep the 'creamy' layer out of the purview of the OBC quota. Further, the quota has to be reviewed every five years. SK Vij, dean, students' welfare, Delhi University, said, "There is a provision in our constitution that education institutes should reserve 27% seats for the OBC. But there is also a provision that seats for the general category should not come down. If there is quota implementation, the total number of seats increases will be increased."

New institutes

In order to achieve the target of gross enrolment ratio from 11% to 15%, the ministry of human resource development proposed 30 new central universities (CUs), 370 colleges, a tribal university, eight IITs, new IIMs, 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology, two new schools of planning and architecture in Bhopal and Vijaywada and 1,000 new polytechnic schools.

Scholarship Schemes

In an attempt to promote knowledge and science education, the department of science and technology formally launched the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scholarship scheme. The Central Government has allocated an amount of Rs 2,100 crore for the scheme in the 11th Plan Period. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also gave its approval to implement the centrally sponsored National Means-Cum-Merit-Scholarship to incur an expenditure of approximately Rs 3,004 crore during the 11th Five Year Plan. The objective of the scheme is to award scholarships to meritorious students from the economically weaker sections and arrest the rate of dropouts and to encourage them to continue studying up to class XII.

Pay hikes

The central government introduced a revised pay scale for university faculty under the sixth pay commission. The main clauses included the introduction of academic grade pay (AGP) and introduction of the three main posts - assistant professor, associate professor and professor. "For the first time, faculty at an entry level will have higher pay grade than government officers. Also, the introduction of the post of professor at the college level will inspire teachers to work towards quality and research," said Thorat. While expressing his views on the increase of pay, Moolchand Sharma, vice-chairman, UGC, said, "The teaching community should come forward to testify that they are willing to understand corresponding wider responsibilities and these responsibilities include making teaching, learning, researching and academic agenda more rigorous and challenging."