'India's education sector needs massive reforms'

New Delhi, Nov 9: At the 25th India Economic Summit, Minister of Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal spoke on the need for massive reforms are required across the spectrum in India"s Education sector.

Promising that most of the critical legislation relating to this sector would be in place by the end of the budget session of Parliament in Mar 2010, Sibal said that these reforms would need to bring in flexibility, transparency and quality in Education in India.

Mr Sibal also invited the the private sector to participate in India"s education agenda and drew distinction between 'profit' and 'surplus'.

“We cannot allow education to be exposed to risk factors," he stressed after stating that that enterprises must be allowed to make surpluses to be ploughed back into the sector.

Further, he spoke on the key challenge in education sector which is prepare the critical mass of students to be ready for higher education. While 12 per cent of the 220 million children reach colleges, the target is to increase this to 30 per cent by 2020, he said adding that the gaps in the skills development needs urgent attention too, said Mr Sibal.

Mr Richard C Levin, President, Yale University, USA who was also at the summit expressed hope that developing access could be achieved with resources and political will; while Mr William D Green, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Accenture termed Access, Affordability and Accountability as the key pillars to develop a sound education system.

Other speakers at the plenary session on Creating World-Class Education in India, jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian (CII) Industry and World Economic Forum included Mr Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Group, Mr Anand Sudarshan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Manipal Education India, Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Corporation India.

OneIndia News