Major steps to revamp Indian education system on anvil: Sibal

I / Kuala Lumpur June 18, 2009, 14:33 IST

India's education system needs massive reforms, similar to those introduced in the Indian economy by the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh in 1991, Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said here today.      

"What Dr Manmohan Singh did to the economy in 1991, should be done to the education sector in 2009," said Sibal, on the sidelines of the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers. He, however, did not elaborate the measures his ministry would take to change "the way" of India's education system.      

Sibal added he was open to the idea of foreign universities setting up campuses in India but said any decision to be taken on the issue would be after a consensus.   

"I am keen on it," he quipped on foreign educational institutions coming to India. Earlier the minister had noted that if well known foreign universities set up a base in India, it could even stem the exodus of thousands of students who left the country to study abroad. 

Describing his bilateral talks with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyuddin Yassin, who is also the country's education minister, as "exceptionally good and extremely positive," Sibal said the two countries had decided to set up a joint working group which will discuss among other things distance learning, teacher's training, technical and vocational education and training of sports teachers.

Malaysia is very keen to have Indian universities to come and set up base in this country, he said, adding "they want to have an overarching umbrella" where the two countries can collaborate in areas like skill development.    

He informed the two leaders had also discussed the issue of joint ventures in the field of education. "There should be incentives if Malaysia comes to invest in our country in the field of education and if we come here, there should be a level playing field both sides" he added. 

The minister noted that the joint ventures could be in distance education, skill development in areas like medicine, engineering etc with the product content cleared by both sides.    

Sibal extended an invitation to Malaysia's deputy premier to visit India."We could also set up a university in Malaysia where students from all over the world could attend it," he said adding that Malaysia had no policy of non repatriation and cost of education was lower. However, he also said that his top priority was to liberalise the Indian education system.      

The minister also met his Malaysian counterpart Dr Subramaniam and discussed the issue of skill development.