How India Plans to Improve the Quality of Higher Education
India’s Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD), Prakash Javadekar, said Thursday that the Cabinet approval for continuation of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan with a substantially increased outlay is a major initiative of the government to enhance quality of education.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, the HRD Minister said that the Cabinet has approved four-fold increase in outlay under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).
Giving more details, Javadekar said that it was about Rs 600 crores per year, totalling to Rs 2400 crore, for 4 yrs from 2013-14 to 2016-17. Now it is Rs 7100 crores for 3 years beginning 2017-18 to 2019-20.
[ दिल्ली के स्कूलों में शिक्षा का गिरता हुआ स्तर और उसमें सुधार का प्रयास ]
The HRD Minister added that 10 Central / State universities with a rating of more than 3.5 under the Graded Autonomy Scheme will get Rs.100 Crores each. Not only that, 20 states will get Rs 50 crore each, totalling to Rs 1000 crore, to create research clusters in the state.
The Minister said that it is a huge gift for quality enhancement of education sector. It will enhance quality of overall education by creating research labs, academic blocks, curriculum, girls hostels, improving research initiatives, faculty improvement and innovation in teaching.
RUSA is an overarching scheme, operated in a mission mode for funding the state universities and colleges in order to achieve the aims of equity, access and excellence.
It seeks to improve the overall quality of existing State higher educational institutions by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and standards.
Photo courtesy: Press Information Bureau
