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There
have been some revolutionary changes in the field of
higher education over the years. The most important change
is that now higher education is a major contributor to the
economy. With India striding fast to become a knowledge
society higher education is no longer restricted to a
handful rich and so called higher sections of society. Now
it is accessible to event the poorest of the poor. With
banks advancing education loan poverty of higher is no
longer a hurdles to pursue higher education.
Even
more important factor is that now almost all sections of
society are growing more and more aware about importance
and need of quality higher education. Even middle class
and lower middle class people, who used to be keen on
buying houses, now prefer to invest in higher education of
their children. Even children now are often heard say to
their parents“ We do not want you to spend lavishly in
our marriage, please securing us the education we want”.
Besides, the returns on quality higher education are so
good that the youth want to spare nothing to excel in it.
One
would thus see that the youth of India is quite passionate
to shine at international level by virtue of knowledge and
professional skills. This is a revolution in education in
true sense. How can Madhya Pradesh, centrally located in
the country, be intact from this revolution? In view of
the above said facts, it becomes the responsibility of the
state government to ensure quality education and better
educational facilities to the youth. In last four years
the present Madhya Pradesh government has lived upto this
expectation. As a result now Madhya Pradesh is poised to
emerge as a higher education hub. This is well brought out
by the fact that at the Global Investors Summit held in
October last at Indore MoUs were signed for twelve private
universities in the state.
Action
is being taken to set up a Special Education Zone (S.Ed.Z)
in the form of Knowledge City at Bhopal for which 635 acre
of land has already been allotted by the government. The
Knowledge City would house reputed medical, engineering
and other colleges on a single premises for which they
would be given concessions.
The
state government has paid special attention to improvement
of quality of higher education over the last four years.
The Private University Act has been brought to facilitate
establishment of private universities by internationally
renowned and reputed educational institutions in the
state. This would also enable the institutions to offer
courses in tune with the requirements created by
industrialization and globalization. This is a good
initiative to channelise the energy of private sector for
public welfare.
At
the same time, the state government has taken steps to
fully safeguard the interests of students. A fees
regulatory committee has been constituted by enacting a
law. The committee is determining the fees as per quality
of facilities in medical, technical and management
institutions. This would strike a balance between the
interests of the students and the institutions. Madhya
Pradesh is one of the few states to have set up fees
regulatory committee by enacting a law as per the
directive of the Supreme Court.
With
a view to associating the students with college management
and to educate them on democracy, the direct elections to
the students unions of colleges were held simultaneously
in all the colleges as per recommendations of the Lyngdoh
Committee. Direct elections to the students unions of
colleges have been held after a long gap of twenty years,
which is a significant achievement.
As
part of measures to improve quality of educational new
arrangement has been put in place for a continuous direct
dialogue between teachers and the administration. IT is
being widely used in the functioning of the department.
Through the website the directives are issued to all the
colleges simultaneously and their implementation is being
ensured. During the elections to the students unions all
correspondence was conducted by e-mail. A weekly video
conferencing is held between senior officers of the
department with the principals. This exercise has enabled
solution of the pending problems of colleges and it
becomes possible to find out the status of implementation
of the directives issued by the department. It also saves
money and time, which would have otherwise spent on
journey by concerning persons.
In
a unique initiative a series of divisional file disposal
and review camps were organized to find out and solve the
problems of the teachers and staff of colleges. The
principals, additional directors and Mantralaya officers
examined and disposed off the long pending cases and
issued necessary orders then and there. This has helped
solve the problems of college management to a great
extent.
Over
the last four years, the state government has followed the
policy of not opening new colleges and to strengthen the
existing 302 ones instead. This has yielded very good
results. Sanctions have been released of construction of
52 college buildings in last four years. There is a target
to construct buildings of all the colleges.
Computer
education has been introduced at graduate level to improve
their competitiveness in this age of computer and IT. In
next six months all the colleges would be networked
through computer. This aims at providing the new
techniques of education management to colleges. Besides,
automation of libraries of 88 colleges is in progress. A
scheme is ready to take up another 80 colleges for library
automation by end of the current financial year.
Action
is also being taken to provide new facilities to the 2
lakh 85 thousand odd college students in the state. The
amount of scholarship provided to scheduled caste and
scheduled tribe students for research work has been
increased from Rs. five thousand to Rs. eight thousand.
The books and stationery allowance for these students has
also been increased.
A
novel Gaon Ki Beti scheme has been implemented to provide
higher education facility to meritorious girl students of
rural areas. Under this, earlier the highest scoring of
the girls of every village passing the XII examination in
first division was given a scholarship of Rs. five hundred
per month to pursue further studies. Now this facility has
been extended to all the girls of villages passing XII
examination in first division. This will increase the
number of beneficiary girls to 15 thousand. So far, 6950
girls have already benefited from this scheme.
Sincere
efforts have been made to link education to employment for
which an action plan has been executed. Entrepreneurship
development, computer education and environment education
have been introduced in the foundation course of the first
year of graduation for expansion of IT education and
implementation of the Industrial Promotion Policy of the
state government. An EDUSAT programme and Virtual
Classrooms have also been started. The Higher Education
Department has also launched a Swami Vivekanand Career
Guidance Scheme to inform the students about career
prospects. Career guidance cells and placement cells have
been set up in all the colleges.
The
state government has paid due attention to development of
infrastructure in colleges over the last four years. At
present, 84 colleges do not have their own buildings.
Construction of buildings for 54 of these colleges is in
progress. Additional funds have been released for
construction work.
In
order to complete teaching work Assistant Professors have
been appointed on 871 vacant backlog posts. As many as 39
principals of postgraduate colleges have been promoted and
principals have been appointed in 164 postgraduate
colleges. Besides, 87 casual Assistant Professors have
been regularized. In all, teachers have been placed in
selection and senior pay scale in 2468 pending cases.
Special
attention has been given to ensuring quality in
establishment of new private colleges, for which new rules
have been enforced from May 25,2007.
It
can, thus, be justifiably claimed that successfully facing
the challenges Madhya Pradesh is fast moving towards
becoming a higher education hub.
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