NEW DELHI, Nov 7:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the UPA government would continue to focus on the three E’s of expansion, equity and excellence with greater emphasis on quality of higher education during the Twelfth Plan while consolidating the gains of the Eleventh Plan.
Speaking at a conference of the Directors of National Institutes of Technology (NITs) here, the Prime Minister, however, expressed concern at India’s low research output as compared to the global share of scientific publications.
Giving details, he said, India’s research output as global share of scientific publications was a mere 3.5 percent in 2010 whereas China’s share was 21 per cent in 2007.
The total number of patent applications filed by Indians in 2010 comprised only 0.3 per cent of the total applications filed globally.
India’s share of global R and D investment was just 2.2 percent which was much lower than 9.2 per cent of China and 32.4 per cent of the US, he said.
He asked the Directors of NITs make important contribution to the country’s our collective efforts to improve the state of affairs.
The two-day Conference which began today, is organised by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan to find ways and means of improving the functioning of NITs.
It follows a similar meet of vice-chancellors of Central Universities which was organised by the President in February.
The second conference of VCs will be convened shortly.
Highlighting the various measures taken by the UPA government to promote higher education, Dr Singh said these efforts had been driven by the consideration that a skilled workforce was critical for India’s rapid socio-economic progress
He underscored the importance of improving access to education and also its quality if the large proportion of young men and women in the country was to be taken advantage of.
Asking the NITs to implement the recommendations of the Kakodkar Committee which was set up to review the functioning of the NITs, the Prime Minister said one of the recommendations was an innovative measure for augmenting research and teaching simultaneously through the ‘Trainee-Teacher’ scheme.
Under this scheme, the top 15 per cent students of NITs and other Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs) would be selected for PhD programmes in IITs and, at the same time, be appointed on contract to teach in an NIT while still pursuing their Master-cum-PhD degree.
“I would urge careful consideration of this recommendation in an expeditious manner,” he said.
He said the Kakodkar Committee has also recommended periodical external Institutional evaluation of NITs.
“This I think is a good recommendation which would help improve quality of teaching and research. I would urge the respective Boards of Governors of NITs to act on this recommendation expeditiously,” he said.
Describing the NITs as “institutions of national importance” which contributed substantially to the technical man-power requirements of the country’s expanding economy, the Prime Minister said this was evident from the fact that in 2012-13, their intake of undergraduate students was over 15,000 and that of
post-graduate students about 11,000.
They were expected to produce engineering graduates comparable in quality to those produced buy premier institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology.
He said eight NITs had started as Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) in early sixties and the expenditure on running these institutions was borne in equal proportion by the Central and State governments.
By 1986, the number of RECs had increased to 17 and in 2003-2004 these 17 colleges were converted into NITs.
The total number of NITs now was 30.
He said that over the years the number of engineering graduates and graduates passing out of NITs and the expenditure on them had grown many-fold.
The funds spent on NITs had increased from Rs 491 crore to more than Rs 1050 crore during 2002-2012.
The Prime Minister said the driving aspirations behind all these changes had been to foster excellence in NITs and bridge the gap between them and the country’s premier institutions, encourage R and D and enhance collaboration and partnership with industry.
These aspirations had been fulfilled to some extent.
He said he quality of their faculty was critical to the achievement of the goals set for the NITs.
Dr Singh said that during the last 9 years of the UPA government, unprecedented expansion had been witnessed in the education system at all levels.
In higher education, during the 11th Plan, 65 new Central Institutions were established, including 21 Central Universities, 8 Indian Institutes of Technology, 7 Indian Institutes of Management, 5 Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, 2 Schools of Planning and Architecture and 10 NITs.
Enrolment in higher education grew from about 166 lakh to about 260 lakh during the Plan period.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio or GER for higher education grew from 12.3 per cent in 2006-2007 to 17.9 per cent in 2011-12.
The growth of enrolment in Engineering saw a phenomenal 25 per cent increase during the Eleventh Plan, he said.
(UNI)
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