Sibal seeks States’ support for key education reforms

The proposed State Education Ministers’ meet called by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday is crucial in evolving consensus on various education reform plans before the commencement of the 12th Five-Year Plan within the next few months.

According to sources in the HRD Ministry, the meeting is aimed at confidence building with the State Ministers, especially at a time when more than a dozen bills introduced by Sibal are held up in the Parliament by the Opposition. The meet is therefore a key opportunity for Sibal to take the State Ministers into confidence.

The issue of Common Entrance Test for admission to engineering colleges is expected to dominate the meeting. Considerable hype has been created on the possible merger of the Indian Institute of Technology’s Joint Entrance Examinations (IIT-JEE) and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) conducted by the CBSE for admissions into science and engineering colleges.

Since majority of engineering and science colleges fall under the purview of the State, if the proposal of common entrance test is to be implemented, the State Governments have to give their complete support.

The HRD Ministry has also claimed to introduce about100 community colleges in 2012- 13. Accordingly, 80 colleges from the UGC list and 20 polytechnics under the State would be identified by the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education in consultation with the respective State Governments for implementing the Community College Programme.

For the proper implementation of the Right to Education (RTE), the State Governments have to be galvanised further, sources pointed out. “The Act certainly can not become a success at the grassroot level without the active support of the State Government. Only nineteen States so far have monitoring mechanism for RTE. Major States like Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and north-eastern States are yet to set up protection authority for RTE.