Access To Education Key In 2006

New Delhi, Dec 31 (UNI) While the reservation issue occupied public attention, the Human Resource Development Ministry went about opening doors to education for more and more Indians in 2006, an official appraisal suggests.

The Ministry's key underlying objective: access to education for advancement of weaker citizens.

Despite criticism and protests, the Ministry went ahead and reserved higher education seats for the educationally backward-- with effect from 2007.

Armed with a Re 11,000 crore budget provision in 2006-07, the Ministry brought millions of out-of-school kids into classrooms, emphasising education of girls and initiating effort to modernise Madarsas.

But little was done to curb teacher absenteeism-- a problem that may get more acute as college lecturers begin to spend more time on internet-- paid for by the University Grants Commission-- and possibly even less time with students.

The number of children still-out-of-school is officially estimated to be down to 9.6 million from 25 million two years ago.

India's National Institute of Open Schooling, the world's largest such system, registered 1.4 million students on its rolls from primary to pre-degree levels.

Special scholarships were introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education for girls who are an only child-- a fillip also to the long-lost small family norm and gender balance.

A preliminiary test for entry to ace engineering and other professional schools was discarded as it gave students in cities an edge over those from smaller towns where coaching facilities are far fewer.

The number of 6-to-14-year-olds availing of mid-day meals rose to 120 million.

Led by Union Minister Arjun Singh, the HRD Ministry touched off controversy by its move to introduce reservations in higher educational institutions for backward classes.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's approval, a committee chaired by Veerappa Moily was set up to monitor implementation of the decision.

The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill 2006 was introduced in Parliament to give effect to the Constitutional provisions-- clause (5) of article 15.

The ''landmark'' Bill sought reservation in matters of admissions for the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Bckward Classes.

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