Foreign varsities most welcome: Sibal
Education is a societal work and privatisation of education for private benefits should not be entertained, said Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal at the 36th annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
“We do not believe in privatisation of education as it a societal activity. However, private participation is welcome for the common good of the society,” Kapil Sibal said.
Education should be provided by institutes by ensuring the participation of all stakeholders like the government, faculty, civil society and leaders in excellence, besides the student community. He also hinted that the government is not ready to provide full autonomy to educational institutions to make the sector profitable.
“I feel privatisation is a dirty word to use when it comes to education. We want private participation and foreign educational institutions are most welcome in India. But what we want them to ensure is that the society has benefitted the most and they be very transparent,” he said.
He also said, education can transform India and management institutes should work along with various sectors like healthcare, technology and education to bring in proper management.
“Management education can provide a solution to various problems faced by India. The new Census reports show that literacy rates among males and females have gone up. This is a good indication that India will be a completely literate country within 10 years.”
When asked of the affordability of higher education for people in the country, he said, the HRD ministry is ensuring loans to all students’. Lakhs of students, including those from minority communities, have benefitted. But, we cannot afford to provide education for free as we are not a $14 trillion economy like the US. So we are looking at various options.
The HRD ministry had moved a proposal to the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission asking the government to stand guarantee for all education loans in the higher education.
“We are moving the finance ministry and Planning Commission to guarantee student loans by the government itself. The Planning Commission is supporting us,” he said.
Hopefully, we will adopt this issue. But it will depend on the financial situation. We hope this proposal will be accepted by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,” he said.
Further, he said, “The government is open to bringing changes in the appointment of directors and chairman to institutions like the IIMs. We have not taken a decision on it yet. For example, the board can recommend names of three persons to the director’s post through a selection criteria and other to the government. Then, we will decide from among the nominated panel in consultation with the board. Even the chairman can be appointed through similar processes, Sibal added.