Education reforms may be fast-tracked

The Congress party’s strong win in the general elections has revived hopes of a host of education reforms being fast-tracked. These include the passing of the Foreign Education Bill, National Knowledge Commission and Yashpal Committee recommendations, setting up of centres of excellence, and public-private-partnership (PPP) in higher education.

Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry sources and prominent academics are expecting the pending Foreign Education Bill to be passed soon. The Government of India had allowed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100 per cent through the automatic route in the education sector in March 2008. But the Bill has been pending since.

“Several international institutes are waiting to seek an approval to set up a campus in India. But the Bill has been pending. New institutes will ensure competition and raise the bar of quality education,” said a Delhi-based industry expert. The industry is also looking forward to acceptance of recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and the Yashpal Committee wherein, it was recommended to the centre that both the All India Council for Technical Education and Universal Grants Commission (UGC) should be replaced with an independent regulatory authority on higher education.

“We hope this will happen in the next one year,” said a director from one of the Bangalore-ased institutes. The NKC was a high-level advisory body to the prime minister formed in 2005. Sam Pitroda headed it. HRD ministry sources and academics opine that the new government could also speed up the process of setting up of centers of excellence, which the government decided under the 11th five-year plan. They are not only optimistic that the higher education sector will get its due but also that the process of setting up of new educational institutes will be expedited.