Enrolment of SC/ST Students
Enrolment of SC/ST Students
As per All India Survey of Higher
Education (AISHE), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the Gross
Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled
Tribe (ST) students over the last four years is as under:-
GER in Higher Education (18-23 Years)
|
||
Year
|
SC Students
|
ST Students
|
2011-12
|
14.9
|
11.0
|
2012-13
|
16.0
|
11.1
|
2013-14
|
17.1
|
11.3
|
2014-15(P)
|
18.5
|
13.3
|
P
– Provisional. (Source –
AISHE, MHRD)
It can be seen from the above table
that there is an increasing trend in GER of SC/ST students in higher education
over the last four years.
Government has taken several measures
to increase the enrollment of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes in higher education. The University Grants Commission
implements several schemes/measures such as Rajiv Gandhi National fellowships
for SC/ST students, post-graduate scholarships for SC/ST students,
post-doctoral fellowships for SC/ST students, coaching schemes for SC/ST
students, establishment of Equal Opportunity Cells in universities and establishment of centres in universities for study of
Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy.
The Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs have also scholarship schemes for
SC/ST students like Post Matric scholarship for SC/ST students, Central Sector
Scholarship Scheme of Top class Education for SC/ST students and National Overseas
Scholarship for SC/ST students.
This information was given by the Union
Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written
reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
*****
Fellowship for Research Degrees
As per the
information furnished by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All
India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the number of students pursuing
research degrees, including M. Phil and Ph.D who received fellowships, under
their schemes, year-wise since 2013, is the following:
Year
|
Number of students
|
2013-14
|
41970
|
2014-15
|
56024
|
2015-16 (till 8th March,
2016)
|
69435
|
The UGC is
implementing several fellowship schemes for students pursuing research degrees,
namely:
(i) Junior/ Senior Research
Fellowship
(ii) Maulana Azad National
Fellowship
(iii) Rajiv Gandhi National
Fellowship for Scheduled Caste (SC) students
(iv) Rajiv Gandhi National
Fellowship for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students
(v) Rajiv Gandhi National
Fellowship for students with disabilities
(vi) National Fellowship for
Other Backward Classes
(vii) Swami Vivekanand Single
Girl Child Fellowship
(viii) Basic Scientific Research
(BSR) Fellowship
(ix) Non-National Eligibility
Test (NET) fellowship.
The UGC has
informed that its fellowship amount, under these schemes, for students pursuing
research degrees is Rs. 25,000/- per month for the initial two years and Rs.
28,000/- for the remaining tenure, as per the fellowship scheme. The students
are also eligible for matching allowances, as per the fellowship scheme. The
fellowships awarded under the Non-National Eligibility Test fellowships ,
through the UGC grants, are Rs. 8,000 per month for Ph.D course and Rs. 5,000
per month for M.Phil course. The details of these UGC fellowships are at http://www.ugc.ac.in/page/XII-Plan-Guidelines.aspx#quality.
The AICTE has
informed that the scholarship given to the teachers sponsored under
Ph.D[Quality Improvement Programme(QIP)] is Rs.9000 per month, along with Rs.
10,000 per annum as contingency, and the scholarship is in addition to
their regular salary and allowances to be paid by the parent institutions.
The UGC has
informed that there is no fixed allocation for fellowships and scholarships in
its fund. The Central Government releases block grants to the UGC for
promotion, determination and maintenance of standards of education. The
year-wise fellowship amount released by the UGC and AICTE on fellowship schemes
for students pursuing research degrees, since 2013, is the following:
Year
|
Grants released by the UGC & AICTE (in
Rs.crores)
|
2013-14
|
439.40
|
2014-15
|
874.53
|
2015-16 (till 8th March,
2016)
|
1013.23
|
As per
information made available by the UGCa total of nearly 30000 students are
selected every year under its research promotion fellowship schemes, namely:
(i) Post-Doctoral Fellowships
for students in professional courses.
(ii) Post-Doctoral Fellowship
for women.
(iii) Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
Post-Doctoral Fellowship for women in humanities and social sciences, including
languages.
(iv) Dr. D.S. Kothari Post-Doctoral
Fellowship.
(v) UGC-BSR Faculty Fellowship.
(vi) Emeritus Fellowship.
(vii) Junior/ Senior Research
Fellowship.
(viii) Maulana Azad National
Fellowship for students belonging to minorities.
(ix) Rajiv Gandhi National
Fellowship for SC students.
(x) Rajiv Gandhi National
Fellowship for ST students.
(xi) Rajiv Gandhi National
Fellowship for students with disabilities.
(xii) National Fellowship for
Other Backward Classes.
(xiii) Swami Vivekanand Single
Girl Child Fellowship.
(xiv) BSR Fellowship.
(xv) Non-NET fellowship. The
AICTE is currently supporting 382 PhD students under its QIP scheme.
This
information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt.
Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
*****
Free English Tuition for SC/ST Students of IITs
Some students who have had schooling in local
language sometimes face difficulty in adjusting to higher conceptual learning
in IITs transacted in English language. In order to alleviate this problem, it
has been decided to operationalise a Peer-group Assisted Learning (PAL)
Programme for socially and educationally disadvantaged students. Under this,
senior students mentor fresh students especially from socially and
educationally disadvantaged sections and help to cope with the academic
pressures of IIT.
Apart from this, many IITs have taken steps such as:
a) Operationalising a basic English language course to improve English competency,
b) Offering two-non-graded courses in language and writing skills using professional software for English language instruction,
c) Conducting formal and informal English language remedial sessions by Student Mentors,
d) Holding special English classes on weekends or evening tutorials and
e) Provision of additional help through Teaching Assistants.
The above support is provided by IITs without charging any fee.
This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
Apart from this, many IITs have taken steps such as:
a) Operationalising a basic English language course to improve English competency,
b) Offering two-non-graded courses in language and writing skills using professional software for English language instruction,
c) Conducting formal and informal English language remedial sessions by Student Mentors,
d) Holding special English classes on weekends or evening tutorials and
e) Provision of additional help through Teaching Assistants.
The above support is provided by IITs without charging any fee.
This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
*****
Restructuring of Curriculum in Higher Education
India is one of the youngest nations in the world
with more than 62% of its population in the working age group (15-59 years),
and more than 54% of its total population below 25 years of age. A
skill gap study conducted by National Skill Development Corporation over
2010-2014, indicates that there is an additional net incremental requirement of
109.73 million skilled manpower by 2022 in twenty-four key sectors.
As per the All
India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2014-15(Provisional), the Gross
Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education is 23.6% which in absolute figures is
33.3 million. The GER target is 25.2% at the end of Twelfth Five Year Plan in
2017 and 30% by 2020. As per AISHE 2014-2015 (P), the data of enrolled students
for various streams are as follows: Ph. D- 112456, M. Phil- 32371, PG- 3578587,
UG- 24257984, PG Diploma- 160244, Diploma- 559541, Certificate- 91810 and
Integrated programmes – 131736. Further, enrollment in stand-alone institutions
indicates: Polytechnics- 1391775, PGDM- 30500, Nursing- 146704, Teacher
Training- 246795 and within Institutions under Ministries- 17752.
During the 12th Plan
period, though the thrust is on consolidation of higher education, several new
Central Universities, Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of
Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Polytechnics and other
Institutions of Higher learning have been established. A new scheme ‘Rashtriya
Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)’ has been launched which aims to assist States
to open new institutions, consolidate old ones and take appropriate steps to
achieve the aims of equity, access and excellence.
The University
Grants Commission (UGC) is providing General Development Assistance (GDA) to
Universities and Colleges declared fit to receive grants under section 12B of
the UGC Act, 1956. This assistance is provided to these institutions for their
overall development covering aspects like enhancing access, ensuring equity,
etc.
Since
‘Education’ is a Concurrent subject, State Governments are also taking various
initiatives to increase access to higher education in the States. Besides, Private
Universities/Institutions are also catering to the educational aspirations of
the youth.
The University
Grants Commission (UGC) has initiated several steps to include innovation and
improvement in course- curricula, introduction of paradigm shift in learning
and teaching pedagogy, examination and education system. With a view to
allow the flexibility in education system, so that students depending upon
their interests and aims can choose interdisciplinary, intra-disciplinary and
skill-based courses, choice based credit system (CBCS), is adopted. The choice
based credit system not only offers opportunities and avenues to learn core
subjects but also explore additional avenues of learning beyond the core
subjects for holistic development.The UGC has prepared mainline and specialised
model syllabi for undergraduate programmes and made it available to the
universities to facilitate the implementation of CBCS.
All India
Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has constituted various Academic Boards
for Engineering/ Management/ Pharmacy/ Architecture programmes consisting of
eminent educationists for restructuring the curriculum for all AICTE approved
institutions, as per the need of industry/academia. Based on the
recommendations of these Academic Boards, AICTE has designed “Model Curriculum”
for PG/UG and Diploma programmes in Engineering/Technology, Pharmacy,
Architecture, Management and Hotel Management & Catering Technology, which
is available at AICTE web-portal link http://www.aicte-india.org/modelsyllabus.php.
The Government is in the process of framing a New
Education Policy (NEP) for meeting the changing
dynamics of the population’s requirement
with regard to quality education, innovation and research,
aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its
students with the necessary skills and
knowledge and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in
science, technology, academics and industry, for which it has carried out
nearly a year-long consultations, which included online, grassroots and
national level thematic deliberations on 33 identified themes.
Three themes under Higher Education are relevant to
policy initiative for restructuring of the curriculum. The theme “Integrating
skill development in higher education” on integrating skills within the higher
education; theme “Linking higher education to society” regarding
re-establishing and strengthening of higher education’s close linkages with the
society and the theme “New Knowledge” relating to higher education institutions
identifying the new domains of knowledge in the global scenario.
The Government of India has constituted a Committee
for Evolution of the New Education Policy which consists of Shri
T.S.R. Subramanian, Former Cabinet Secretary as the Chairman and Smt. Shailaja
Chandra, former Chief Secretary, NCT of Delhi, Shri Sevaram Sharma, former Home
Secretary, NCT of Delhi, Shri Sudhir Mankad, former Chief Secretary, Gujarat
& Prof. J.S. Rajput, former Director, NCERT as members. The Committee is
expected to examine the outcome documents, recommendations and suggestions
received and formulate a draft National Education Policy as well as a Framework
for Action (FFA).
This
information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt.
Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
*******
Steps Taken to Improve Standard of Primary and
Secondary Schools
Department of School Education and
Literacy has two centrally sponsored schemes viz. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
to assist States in universalization of elementary education and the Rashtriya
Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) for universal access to secondary education.
The Central Government through SSA, supports States/UTs on early grade reading, writing & comprehension, and early Mathematics programmes through a sub-programme namely ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ (PBBB) in classes I and II. Further the Government has launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) programme on 09.07.2015, inter alia, as a sub-component of SSA and RMSA, to motivate and engage children of the age group from 6-18 years in Science, Mathematics and Technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities.
Additionally, under SSA, the State Governments and UT Administrations are supported on several interventions to improve teaching standards, including regular in-service teachers’ training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, training of all untrained teachers to acquire professional qualifications through Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode, recruitment of additional teachers for improving pupil-teacher ratios, academic support for teachers through block and cluster resource centres, continuous and comprehensive evaluation system to equip the teacher to measure pupil performance and provide remedial action wherever required, and teacher and school grants for development of appropriate teaching-learning materials, etc.
The Central Government has launched the ‘Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching’ in December, 2014 with a vision to comprehensively address all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation, professional development, curriculum design, research in pedagogy and developing effective pedagogy.
The NCERT has developed Performance Indicators for Elementary Education (PINDICS) to track teacher performance and attendance in Government schools. PINDICS have been shared with State Governments/UTs to assess teacher’s performance.
In the recent Meeting of Education Ministers on Teachers’ Education held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 8.2.2016 several steps for improvement of the quality of education were discussed. These include; internship for Teacher Education Programmes in Government Schools; development of an accreditation framework for Teacher Education Institutions and volunteerism involving retired teachers.
In order to provide quality education to students at the secondary level, various interventions are funded under the RMSA. These include provisions for: (i) additional teachers to improve Pupil Teacher Ratio, (ii) induction and in-service training for Principals, Teachers, Master Trainers and Key Resource Persons, (iii) Maths and Science kits, (iv) Lab equipments, (v) Special teaching for learning enhancement, (vi) ICT facilities in schools, (vii) introduction of vocational education component at the secondary level.
Further, for improving the quality of school education, the School Standards & Evaluation framework, known as ‘Shaala Siddhi’ has been developed by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), to enable schools to evaluate their performance in a more focused and strategic manner and to facilitate them to make professional judgments for improvement.
Under SSA programme, approval was given to projects worth Rs. 37516.71 crore & Rs. 48693.52 crore during 2014-15 & 2015-16 respectively for improving the quality. Further, amounts of Rs. 456.00 crore & Rs. 525.00 crore have been approved for Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat during the same period.
This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
The Central Government through SSA, supports States/UTs on early grade reading, writing & comprehension, and early Mathematics programmes through a sub-programme namely ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ (PBBB) in classes I and II. Further the Government has launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) programme on 09.07.2015, inter alia, as a sub-component of SSA and RMSA, to motivate and engage children of the age group from 6-18 years in Science, Mathematics and Technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities.
Additionally, under SSA, the State Governments and UT Administrations are supported on several interventions to improve teaching standards, including regular in-service teachers’ training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, training of all untrained teachers to acquire professional qualifications through Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode, recruitment of additional teachers for improving pupil-teacher ratios, academic support for teachers through block and cluster resource centres, continuous and comprehensive evaluation system to equip the teacher to measure pupil performance and provide remedial action wherever required, and teacher and school grants for development of appropriate teaching-learning materials, etc.
The Central Government has launched the ‘Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching’ in December, 2014 with a vision to comprehensively address all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation, professional development, curriculum design, research in pedagogy and developing effective pedagogy.
The NCERT has developed Performance Indicators for Elementary Education (PINDICS) to track teacher performance and attendance in Government schools. PINDICS have been shared with State Governments/UTs to assess teacher’s performance.
In the recent Meeting of Education Ministers on Teachers’ Education held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 8.2.2016 several steps for improvement of the quality of education were discussed. These include; internship for Teacher Education Programmes in Government Schools; development of an accreditation framework for Teacher Education Institutions and volunteerism involving retired teachers.
In order to provide quality education to students at the secondary level, various interventions are funded under the RMSA. These include provisions for: (i) additional teachers to improve Pupil Teacher Ratio, (ii) induction and in-service training for Principals, Teachers, Master Trainers and Key Resource Persons, (iii) Maths and Science kits, (iv) Lab equipments, (v) Special teaching for learning enhancement, (vi) ICT facilities in schools, (vii) introduction of vocational education component at the secondary level.
Further, for improving the quality of school education, the School Standards & Evaluation framework, known as ‘Shaala Siddhi’ has been developed by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), to enable schools to evaluate their performance in a more focused and strategic manner and to facilitate them to make professional judgments for improvement.
Under SSA programme, approval was given to projects worth Rs. 37516.71 crore & Rs. 48693.52 crore during 2014-15 & 2015-16 respectively for improving the quality. Further, amounts of Rs. 456.00 crore & Rs. 525.00 crore have been approved for Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat during the same period.
This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
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