Plan panel puts GER at 20 per cent

Updated on: Monday, April 30, 2012

The Planning Commission said, Gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education stands at around 20 per cent, suggesting a significant leap in the number of students entering the university system.

Adviser(higher education) in the plan panel Pawan Agarwal said, in absolute term the enrolment is at around 20 million, and this could further rise if enrolment in distance education is taken into account.

"You would be surprised to know currently India has gross enrolment ratio of around 20 per cent going by international comparisons where we take in age group of 18 to 22 years a five year cohort. Earlier six year cohort was taken which was not internationally competitive," he said at a function here.

GER in higher education was so far assumed to be at around 15 to 17 per cent. The government has emphasised on significant investment during the 12th plan period for new universities and colleges and augmentation of infrastructure to take the GER to 30 per cent during the next ten years.

Addressing the India Education Congress here, Agarwal, however, noted that the country had still a long way to go if compared to advanced countries who boast of a GER in the range of 60 to 80 per cent.

Stating that there are still areas and communities unserved by education, Agarwal emphasised on rejuvenating higher education through flagship schemes and giving enough focus on state level colleges and universities.

"Rejuvenate higher education through flagship programmes like through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan at the higher education level. Focus on state universities and colleges which have been languishing attention because much of the growth is going to come from these places," he said.

Observing that scholarship schemes and loans have not been as widely used in India to fund higher education as expected, he demanded higher allocation to this sphere.

"Scholarships and loan schemes have not been widely used though they are increasingly used to finance higher education and education loans for the poorest of the poor also. So we need to take care of those sections of population," he said.

In this context he favoured "universalisation of the reach of scholarships and student loans so that no student will be deprived of education".

The Government had already announced a credit guarantee fund for education loans. Chairman Vineet Joshi, while spelling out a host of reformative measures rolled out over the last couple of years, said the introduction of the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) has already begun showing its desired results in classes.

"We found across the country in schools in a survey that performance of students in terms of pass percentage is better as compared to student who passed out in previous years (prior to introduction of CCE)" he said.

Plan panel puts GER at 20 per cent

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