Revamp for UGC, boost to e-learning on the cards
New
Delhi : Restructuring
of UGC, setting up of National Testing Agency to conduct entrance tests, an
innovation fund for secondary education and launch of SWAYAM programme on the
lines of MOOC courses are among the initiatives the Centre today as it
increased the budget allocation to the education sector by over 10 per cent.
In
his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced allocation of Rs
46,356.25 crore to Department of School Education and Literacy and Rs 33,329.70
crore to department of Higher Education. “An Innovation Fund for Secondary
Education will be created to encourage local innovation for ensuring universal
access, gender parity and quality improvement. This will include ICT-enabled
learning transformation. The focus will be on 3,479 educationally backward
blocks,” he said in budget speech. “We propose to leverage information
technology and launch SWAYAM platform with at least 350 online courses. This
would enable students to virtually attend the courses taught by the best
faculty; access high quality reading resources; participate in discussion
forums; take tests and earn academic grades.
“Access
to SWAYAM would be widened by linkage with DTH channels, dedicated to
education,” Jaitley added.
HRD
Minister Prakash Javadekar hailed the budget as “revolutionary” and referred to
it as a budegt for “Better India”. “This is a revolutionary budget, budget
which is development-oriented, budget which honours honest tax payers
#BudgetForBetterIndia,” he tweeted. The Centre also announced that there will
be a restructuring of UGC to ensure greater autonomy for institutions and with
an aim of granting autonomous status to more colleges in the country. “In
higher education, we will undertake reforms in the UGC. Good quality
institutions would be enabled to have greater administrative and academic
autonomy. Colleges will be identified based on accreditation and ranking, and
given autonomous status. A revised framework will be put in place for outcome
based accreditation and credit based programmes,” the Finance Minister said in
the budget speech. Announcing the establishment of a separate agency for conducting
entrance examinations, Jaitley said, “we propose to establish a National
Testing Agency as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation
to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions.” “This
would free CBSE, AICTE and other premier institutions from these administrative
responsibilities so that they can focus more on academics,” he added.
A
system of measuring annual learning outcomes in schools, enhanced emphasis on
science education and flexibility in curriculum to promote creativity through
local innovative content, launching of Skill Acquisition and Knowledge
Awareness for Livelihood Promotion programme (SANKALP) at a cost of Rs 4,000
crore and a special scheme for creating employment in leather and footwear industries,
are among the other initiatives announced by the government.
– PTI
Source | Free Press | 2 February 2017
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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