New Delhi: The government is not going to give up its opposition to
for-profit educational institutions as any collapse of such entities
would impact students.
"If profit means giving dividend to shareholders from fees that parents
pay, then my position is no," said Human Resource Development Minister
Kapil Sibal here Monday.
"Nowhere in the world this happens. Education institutions are not like
some company that can wind up one day. We cannot allow educational
institutions to go bust," said Sibal at the World Economic Forum's
India Economic Summit.
The minister also said there was talk of using latest technology to
bring higher education to a greater mass, but the main responsibility
of the government remained in promoting primary education.
"Out of the 509-million workforce, 70 percent haven't got primary
education. We first need to get the schooling system right," said
Sibal, who is also a distinguished lawyer.
The Minister also spoke about using the unique identification number,
the first set of which is going to be rolled out in about a year, for
identifying and monitoring India's primary education programme.
"Each child will be given a unique identification number, which we will
use to determine if he or she has dropped out or not," he said.
Among some other measures to reform India's education sector, Sibal
said his ministry was soon going to having a website compulsory for
educational institutions, where the school's infrastructure facilities
and faculty will have to be spelt out.
"That is going to be part of the law, and we are going to take away their recognition if they violate this," said Sibal.
He also said bills to reforms the education sector, including setting
up an independent accrediting body, will be introduced in the next two
sessions of parliament.