Lok Sabha Question No. 5598 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-04-02
Subject: Education Reforms
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: RAJESHBHAI NARANBHAI CHUDASAMA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5598 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02-04-2018

## Education Reforms

## 5598.   SHRI RAJESHBHAI CHUDASAMA:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- a) whether the Government proposes to bring about reform in education sector and if so, the details thereof;
- b) the expenditure proposed to be incurred on each of such reform;
- c) the reaction/opinion received from the State Governments in case of each reform; and
- d) the details of reforms which are likely to require statutory changes in State legislations?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

## (DR. SATYA PAL SINGH)

(a)  to  (d) The  Government  of  India  has  initiated  major  reforms  in  the  education  sector  to improve the quality and access to education. Aimed at expanding access to quality education, new  premier  higher  education  institutions  have  been  opened  across  the  country,  marking  the highest ever such expansion in the history after Independence.

SWAYAM MOOCs portal ( (Study Webs of Active learning for Young Aspiring Minds) is an indigenous MOOCs portal that provides high quality education - anyone, anytime, anywhere at no cost- has been made operational. The portal has courses by the best teachers in the country and offers video lectures, e-reading material, discussion forum and assessment system - resulting in award of credits to the successful learners. Sofar, more than 1000 courses are made available and  more  than  33  lakh  users  are  registered  in  this  forum.  Upto  20  %  credit  transfer  into  the academic record of students, is allowed now, for the courses taken on the SWAYAM portal.

To  reach high quality educational content to the most backward  areas using satellite communication,  32  DTH  channels  have  been  made  functional,  under SWAYAM  Prabha programme. These channels air 4 hours of new content every day.

The initiative of National Digital Library (NDL) is  a  virtual  repository  of  learning  resources with a single window search facility. It has already brought together 15 million digital books and journals  and  31  lakh  learners  are  using  this  facility.  It  supports  all  academic  levels  including researchers  and  life-long  learners,  all  disciplines,  all  popular  form  of  access  devices  and differently abled learners.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) is a new initiative to make use the knowledge base in the higher educational  institutions  for  plugging  technology  gaps  in  the  rural  areas.  In  this  year,  750 institutions are being selected on challenge mode. This is expected to enrich rural India by way of customising existing technology as per local needs and also by improving the implementation of existing government schemes.

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) scheme has been launched in Dec, 2014, to address the issues of supply of qualified  teachers,  attracting  talent  into  teaching  profession,  raising  the  quality  teaching  in schools and colleges.

Recently,  the  Government  has  constituted  a Committee to draft National Education Policy under the Chairmanship of eminent scientist Dr. K. Kasturirangan which is expected to submit its report by 31 st March, 2018.

Ek  Bharat  Shreshtha  Bharat programme  has  been  conceived  by  Hon'ble  PM  to  promote mutual  understanding  between  States  &  UTs  in  India  which  have  diverse  cultures,  traditions, languages etc., through a process of sustained mutual engagement between the people. All States and  UTs  are  paired  with  each  other  for  a  period  of  one  year,  after  which  the  pairing  would change.  The  objective  is  to  break  the  inhibitions  arising  from  diversity  in  culture  through participative appreciation and engagement by people so that a spirit of oneness is created in the process for the nation.

Under Swachh  Bharat programme  the  Department  recognised  the  huge  role  that  has  to  be played by HEIs in promoting Swachhta in the form of an attitude of zero tolerance to anything unhygienic. It has initiated Swachhta Rankings of Higher Educational Institutions and Swachhta Action Plans have been prepared.

Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) is  an  initiative  launched on 30 th November 2015 to garner best international knowledge and experience into the country's higher education so as to enable Indian students & faculty to interact with best academic and industry experts from across the world. GIAN courses are short duration courses and as on date, 1075 courses have been  conducted,  in  which  more  than  40,000  students  gained  enriched  academic  inputs  and knowledge. These courses are also video recorded for subsequent use and some are also telecast live, depending upon the available infrastructure.

Government  has  embarked  on  building  20  Institutions  of  higher  learning  -  10  public  and  10 private  institutions  as 'Institutions  of  Eminence'  (IoE) ,  so  that  they  are  related  among  the global  best  institutions.  These  institutions  to  be  declared  in  April,  2018,  will  have  complete academic and administrative freedom and the public institutions will be given 1000 crore fund in next 3 years.

The  best performing Institutions with high accreditation would  be given autonomy  in functioning.  The  Graded  Autonomy  Regulation  introduced  recently  would  provide  liberal regulatory  oversight  so  that  the  institution  can  plan  for  new  courses  and  would  strive  for excellence.

IMPRINT India is  an  effort  to  direct  research  in  the  premier  institutions  into  areas  of  social relevance.  10  such  domains  have  been  identified  which  could  substantially  impact  the  living standards  of  the  rural  areas  .  More  than  2600  research  proposals  have  been  submitted  by scientists in these areas.

The Uchchtar Avishkar Yojana (UAY) has been launched to promote industry specific needbased research so as to keep up the competitiveness of Indian industry in the global market. It is proposed to invest Rs. 250 crores every year on identified projects. The Industry is expected to contribute 25 % of the project cost.

Prime  Minister  Research  Fellows  (PMRF) scheme  is  launched  to  support  1000  bright undergraduate  students  every  year,  for  direct  admission  in  the  research  programmes  in  the reputed institutions like IISc, IITs. The fellowship carries a lot of social recognition and it ranges from Rs 70,000 to 80,000 per month for 5 year period.

Smart India Hackathon initiative is to promote innovation in the students by encouraging out of the box solutions for common problems faced by the society at large. In the first edition held in 2017, more than 40,000 students have participated to solve more than 600 problems. In 2018, the scope has been expanded to Hardware area also.

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is  the  biggest ranking exercise launched in 2015, in which more than 3,500 institutions participated. The first edition of India Rankings 2016 were released in April, 2016. The India Rankings 2018 , the 3rd edition, is expected to be released  on  3rd  April,  2018.  The  India  Rankings  is  one  of  the  biggest  efforts  for  bringing  in accountability and transparency in the higher educational institutions. The ranks are released in the various categories of institutions namely Universities, Engineering, Management, Pharmacy etc..

Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) has been approved by the Cabinet for creation of a fund with government equity of Rs. 1000 crores, to give a big push for building up robust higher educational institutions. The HEFA  would finance the academic and research infrastructure projects through a 10 year loan.  It is expected to spend Rs. 1,00,000 crore in next 5 years, for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier education institutions.

Rashtriya Uchchatar Siksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme has been given extension by Cabinet recently to provide more assistance for infrastructure to Universities and Colleges, creation of Model  Degree  colleges,  Cluster universitite3s,  Upgradation  of  autonomous  colleges  and Vocationalisation of higher education.

Under the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme Phase III (TEQUIP-III) focus has been given to the backward States in central tribal belt and north-eastern region. Under this  Rs.  2,600  Cr  would  be  spent  for  improving  the  quality  of  teaching  and  research  in  the engineering institutions.

With a view to promoting autonomy for the premier institutions, the IIM Act has declared them as Institutes of National Importance and gave complete autonomy for deciding their dministrative and academic matters, without any Govt interference.

In  accordance  with  the  policy  that  education  should  be  accessible  for  everyone,  the  National Scholarship Portal has been started. Apart from this, the Vidyalaxmi portal provides one-window clearance for the Education Loans with Interest Subvention.

## SCHOOL EDUCATION

In  order  to  focus  on  quality  education,  the  Central  RTE  Rules  have  been  amended  on  20th February,  2017  to  include  reference  on  class-wise,  subject-wise  Learning  Outcomes.  The Learning  Outcomes  for  each  class  in  Languages  (Hindi,  English  and  Urdu),  Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science up to the elementary stage have, accordingly, been finalized and shared with all States and UTs. These would serve as a guideline for States and UTs to ensure that all children acquire appropriate learning level.

A National  Achievement  Survey  (NAS) was  conducted  on  13th  November,  2017  through which the learning levels of around 22 lakh students of Classes III, V and VIII from 1.10 lakh schools  across  700  districts  in  all  36  States  and  UTs  were  assessed.  This  competency  based assessment was based on the Learning Outcomes developed by the NCERT. District and State report cards for NAS 2017 have been released by this Department and are available on MHRD website. Through NAS it is for the first time that the teachers have a tool to understand what exactly the child should be learning in various classes, how to teach this through activities and how to measure and ensure that children have reached the required level.

NAS for class X was conducted on 5th February, 2018 in a sample of around 15.5 lakh students in 45,337 schools.  The performance of students was assessed in five major subjects i.e. English, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and Modern Indian Languages (MIL), based on a district wise sampling of schools, to enable States to identify gaps in learning at district level and design strategies to address these gaps.

The RTE Act, 2009 was amended in 2017 to  ensure  that  all  teachers  acquire  the  minimum qualifications  prescribed  under  the  Act  by  31st  March  2019  to  reinforce  the  Government's emphasis on improvement of quality of elementary education. The National Institute of Open schooling (NIOS) has been entrusted to conduct this training through Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 11th August, 2017 to provide for a regular examination at fifth class and eighth class at the end of every academic year.  If a child fails in the said examination, he  shall  be  given  additional  instruction  and  granted  opportunity  for  re-examination  within  a period of two months from the declaration of the result.  In case the child fails in the second attempt, the appropriate Government may allow schools to hold back a child in the fifth class or in the eighth class or in both classes, in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.  The appropriate Government may also decide not to hold back a child in any class till the completion of elementary education.

The  Central  Board  of  Secondary  Education  (CBSE)  has  decided  to  make  class  X  Board Examination compulsory from the academic year 2017-18.

A four year B.Ed. integrated programme with  multiple  pathways and specialization for preprimary,  elementary,  secondary  and  senior  secondary  teachers  will  be  introduced  from  the academic session 2019-2020.

In pursuance of the proposal of the Union Budget, 2018-19, to treat school education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12, this Department has prepared an Integrated Scheme  for  School  Education  by  subsuming  the  three Centrally  Sponsored  Schemes  of  SSA, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) extending Central support across all levels of school education.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is undertaking an exercise to rationalize the curriculum/syllabus/subject contents from Class I to XII with the objective of all round development of students. Suggestions have been invited from various stakeholders till April 6th, 2018.

The Department plans to support ' Operation Digital Board' in all schools ( class 9 onwards ) and colleges as a joint effort of Centre, States, CSR and community initiatives to provide good quality education by effective use of technology and telecom services and convert every class room in the country (from class IX and above) into a digital class room.

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) was  launched by Government of India in March, 2009 envisaging inter-alia provision of a secondary school within a reasonable distance of any habitation and to improve quality of education imparted at secondary level by making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms, removing gender, socio-economic and disability barriers etc. In 2013, secondary education the schemes of ICT, vocational education, Girls Hostel and IEDSS were subsumed under the umbrella of RMSA. Under the scheme, 12682 new schools and 37799 existing schools for strengthening have been sanctioned so far.

e-pathshala has  been  developed  by  NCERT  (National  Council  for  Educational  Research  and Training)  for  showcasing  and  disseminating  all  educational  e-resources  including  textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a variety of other print and non-print materials. So far, 3,062 audios and videos, 650 e-books (e-pubs) and 504 flip books have been made available on the portal and mobile app.

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