Manash Pratim Gohain / Higher education intake to be raised from 26% to 40%

MHRD Proposes To Spend Rs.30 Crore Over The Next Five Years to Draw a College Education Map for Backward Areas

The government has set itself an ambitious target of raising gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education to 40% by 2024 from about 26% at present. The only way it can achieve this is by opening colleges in backward districts and getting those in the socio-economically vulnerable categories to enrol for development. The MHRD Ministry has proposed to invest Rs.30,338 crore to achieve this over the next five years.

In its vision plan for 2019-24, the ministry says it needs to address the “geographically and socially skewed access to higher education institutions in India”. For instance, while the overall Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is 25.8%, for SCs, it is 21.8%, and for STs it is even lower at 15.9%. And if you do a global comparison, India fares quite poorly. Just among BRICS nations, India is slightly ahead of South Africa and way behind Russia (81.8%), Brazil (50.5%) and China (50.0%).

Identifying the major challenges, the report, ‘Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme’, states that “empirical evidence points towards the persistence of economic, social, locational, and regional disparities in access to higher education. The higher education system and institutions have to recognize and adapt to meet the demands from diverse communities of students.”

The document offers a four-pronged strategy to raise GER to 40%. For the start, “8,000 Samras hostels (in build-own-operate model) would be set up to accommodate 16 lakh students from vulnerable socio- economic backgrounds with no access to higher educational institutions in their vicinity to continue education. Scholarships for 16 lakh students to meet hostel expenses will act as a support mechanism for students.”

For a GER of 40%, presuming that about 20% (around five lakh annually) of the SC/ST students would require hand holding before admission in the higher educational institution; the MHRD report has proposed setting up of finishing schools at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore over a period of five years. “Model degree colleges and new colleges set up in backward areas will have the provision of a bridge course (on the same pattern as finishing school) in the first year of the degree to impart mathematical and soft skills to them to enhance employability.”

"The document offers a four pronged strategy to raise Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to 40%. For the start, “8,000 Samras hostels (in builddown - operate model) would be set up to accommodate 16 lakh students from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds with no access to higher educational institutions in their vicinity"

There’s also renewed focus on open and distance learning (ODL). Within ODL, the pass percentage of SC/ST students is around 20%. The report observed the present rule of fee waiver to SC/ST students (other than in technical and professional programmes under ODL) goes waste as there is no incentive to successfully complete the programme. The vision document recommended that students get a 50% waiver in the tuition fee at the time of admission. To “incentivise students to pass the end-semester/year-end examination, it is proposed to launch a scheme named Success Rewarded (SURE), under which the entire tuition fee with an upper ceiling of Rs.10,000 a year should be repaid to the student as a reward for passing the exam.”

In order to expand access to cater to geographically undeserved areas, the ministry proposes upgrading 500 degree colleges in backward blocks to Vocational Degree Colleges (VCD) by integrating a vocational stream to start Bachelor of Vocational Education (BVoc) programmes. The calculation is that 200 students will enrol in each of these colleges every year-so, one lakh students will get enrolled in the 500 colleges each year.

Remote/rural areas with no digital penetration is another challenge to access, which the report proposes to resolve by setting up conventional study centers. If there is no college in a block or district (there were 11 such districts in 2018, and there are about 3,500 educationally backward blocks), study centers for UG level can be opened in colleges or Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodaya Vidyalayas and other higher secondary schools or government kendras. “The college/higher secondary school/Navodaya Vidyalayas/Government Krishi Vigyan Kendra/ similar establishment can be given a grant of Rs.10 lakh per year for five years.”

The vision document was prepared after deliberations by 10 expert groups. The expert group on strategies for expanding access was chaired by Hasmukh Adhia, Chancellor, Central University, Gujarat, and its members include Professor Ami Upadhyay, VC, DR Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad, Professor PD Jose of IIM-Bangalore, Professor TV Kattimanni, VC, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director, Inter University Consortium, Ignou, and Damayanti, Secretary, higher education, Andhra Pradesh government.