Lok Sabha Question No. 2847 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-20
Subject: Achievements under Twelfth Plan
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: M. I. SHANAVAS

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2847 TO BE ANSWERED ON 20.03.2017

## Achievements under Twelfth Plan

2847. SHRI M.I. SHANAVAS:

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

- (a) the major issues highlighted about the Ministry in the Twelfth Five Year Plan;
- (b) the number of the said points that have been incorporated and integrated in the Twelfth Plan so far;
- (c) if so, the complete details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (d) whether there is any monitoring cell to oversee whether Ministry is moving in tandem with the Twelfth Five Year Plan targets; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and the targets fixed in the Twelfth Five Year Plan has been achieved so far?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF   STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. MAHENDRA NATH PANDEY)

(a)  to  (e):  The  priority  areas  of  higher  education  during  the  Twelfth  Five  Year  Plan  (2012-17)  are focus  on  expansion,  equity  and  excellence  with  a  greater  emphasis  on  quality  of  higher  education mainly by way of setting up of new institutions; greater emphasis on funding of State institutions to improve infrastructural facilities; ensuring  availability,  recruitment  and  retention  of  qualified  people to  meet  the  growing  need   for    quality   faculty;    upgrading    the    skills    of existing    faculty    and building  synergies between teaching and research to promote excellence in both; making use of the transformative potential of new technologies to improve quality, reduce cost, improve processes and efficiency  and  reach  a  larger  body  of  students;  and  focus  on  skills  within  the  higher  education  by setting up of community colleges and polytechnics.

To meet the above stated priorities, a number of initiatives have been taken such as opening of new institutions of higher education, implementation of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission  on  Teachers  &  Teaching,  launching  of  Massive  Open  Online  Courses  (MOOCs)  on

SWAYAM  platform  and  Uchchatar  Aavishkar  Abhiyan  programme  to  promote  industry-specific need-based research.  The  National  Mission  on  Education  through  Information  and  Communication Technology has been envisaged as a scheme with the objective of making the best use of ICT with the purpose  of  identification  and  nurturing  of  talent  and  life-long  learning  as  well  as  extending  the education facility  to  a  larger  section  of  people.  During  the  Twelfth  Five  Year  Plan,  a  new  scheme called the  Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) has been approved which aims to achieve equity,  access  and  excellence  in  higher  education.  The  scheme  supports  components  such  as upgrading autonomous colleges to universities, clustering colleges to establish a university, setting up of new professional colleges in un-served and underserved areas as well as providing infrastructure grants to universities and colleges to scale up capacity.

For  school  education  major  priority  areas,  inter  alia,  include  universal  access,  free  and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years, improve attendance and reduce dropout  rates  and  improve  the  learning  outcome.  To  achieve  these  objectives,  major  activities undertaken are  construction of school toilets under Swachh Vidyalay initiative,  implementation of Udaan programme to ensure quality education for girl child and to enable them to get enrolment in technical  education  through  academic  support,  Padhe  Bharat  Badhe  Bharat  initiative  to  increase learning  outcomes  in  children.  In  addition,  initiatives  have  been  taken  to  monitor  performance  in school  via  E-Governance.  Saransh  is  a  tool  for  comprehensive  self-review  and  analysis  for  CBSE affiliated  schools  and  parents.  It  enables  them  to  analyze  students'  performance  in  order  to  take remedial measures. Shaala Darpan is to track child's school activities and performances with regular updates through SMS and website thereby bringing transparency. Shaala Siddhi is a comprehensive school  evaluation  system  focused  on  well-defined  quality  based  parameters.  More  than  70%  of Government Schools in India have been mapped on a GIS platform to help in policy and planning, and e-Pathshala & e-CBSE have been created to provide the students, teachers, parents and educators with free access to all NCERT and CBSE textbooks anytime, anywhere.

There  is  an  inbuilt  mechanism  to  monitor  the  progress  of  the  schemes  through  Project Appraisal Boards and Joint Review Missions.  Periodic monitoring of schemes is undertaken by the senior officials of the ministry.

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