20 pc of Indian youths should enter universities: Moily

Mangalore, Apr 22 (UNI) Administrative Reforms Commission Chairman M Veerappa Moily today said to grab global opportunities and become a world leader, India with its vast human resource should ensure that 20 per cent of its youths entered the portals of university in the next 15 years from the present seven per cent.

Speaking on 'Transformation of Dakshina Kannada district: Infrastructure, Employment, Urban Governance - A Challenge', organised by the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) here, he said, ''To achieve this, we need 1,200 management institutions and there is a need for a major change in the higher education field with quality maintenance and accountability at all levels, both in private and public educational institutions. We need to humanise and sensitise our educational system,'' he opined.

The former Karnataka chief minister stressed that unless education was treated as public good like in the US, the goals would not be achieved. Expansion, inclusion and excellence should be the need of the hour in higher education, he added.

Mr Moily, who headed the oversight committee which recommended 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, felt that the ideal situation in higher education was not to go in for reservation system. ''But we have not reached that stage. For that matter, even the US has not reached that stage. However, the argument that reservation in higher education will bring down excellence is totally unfounded and incorrect.'' He said that with education now getting a lot of focus, the UPA Government at the Centre in its present budget had allocated six per cent of the total budget to education sector. The UPA Government had also laid more stress on capacity building by investing crores of Rupees on providing scholarships. The Government was also now looking at various aspects of regulatory agencies such as the University Grants Commission and AICTE, including funding.

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