Sibal argues for foreign universities

Updated on: Thursday, July 16, 2009

New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday made a forceful case for private investments including from foreign universities in education, and said there would be a law to regulate these institutions.

Replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha on demands for budgetary grants for his ministry, Sibal delineated his vision for development of the education sector, arguing that "all kinds of new experiments" would have to be made.

The minister reiterated that he would bring the Right to Education bill and get it passed in this session of parliament that concludes on August 7.

He said there would have to be public-private partnerships, private institutions managing government schools and private investments, besides the government efforts.

The minister told the house: "We all have become slaves to our convictions. If you want to free our education, free yourself from these convictions."

Sibal, a practising lawyer, also tactfully argued in favour of scrapping the 10th board examinations.

He said: "When I spoke of this, I said in the context of the Central Board of Secondary Education schools where, if a student wished to go to the 11th standard, there should not be a need to appear for the 10th board exams."

He said: "Some members feel that foreign universities would enslave India. No power in the world can enslave India."

Sibal argued that the government alone could not finance the educational needs of the country, and said: "There is an allocation of Rs 85,000 crore for education in the 11th Five-Year Plan but this is not enough."

"The private sector has to come. But we will have to regulate it and there will be a law soon for it," he said, adding that such regulations would be done by experts and academics and "there would be no political interference at all."

He said 1.6 lakh Indian students go abroad every year and spend millions of dollars besides the heavy cost to the exchequer. Sibal wondered: "A student in India may be denied admission in IIT but he gets it in MIT."

Sibal reiterated that he was working towards setting up an overarching regulatory authority in higher education in which "there would be no political interference. It will only have academics".

The minister has earlier argued for an authority that would subsume the University Grants Commission, the All India Council of Technical Education and the Medical Council of India.

Sibal argues for foreign universities

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