Is Task force advice implementable?

Tathya.in, May 19, 2010
Bhubaneswar:19/May/2010


Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was happy to receive the much awaited Report on Higher Education on 19 May here.

The State Task Force on Higher Education headed by Professor Trilochan Pradhan gave its report to Mr.Patnaik, who is eager to raise the educational standards in the state.

Debi Prasad Mishra, Minister Higher Education and other eminent academicians, who are the members of the Task Force were also present.

Task Force was formed in October, 2009 to study the present scenario of higher education in the state and suggest ways and means to improve the situation and bring it at par with international standards, the notification said.

According to Mr.Mishra, Rs.55,000 crore is needed to be spent over next 12 years to reform the higher education and bring it at par with international standards.

The advisory body has recommended that apart from regular provisions in budget, an additional Rs.10,000 crore is needed to pump in by the State Government for building up infrastructure and strengthening sytem.

Funding from Central Kitty to the tune of Rs.10,000 crore is needed during 2012-22, while Task Force expects equal amount from private sector, said sources.

It may be pointed out that Sam Pitroda, former Chairman of National Knowledge Commission offered an advice.

Prof.Pitroda, while addressing the Task Force meeting said “Let us work out our practical requirement and suggest workable ideas”.

Administrators in higher education feel that suggestions are general in nature and huge funding is needed, which is just lacking in the government system.

Take for example the Task Force has recommended several measures and top of it’s agenda is to separate Plus 2 and Plus 3 colleges.

Now question arises, has the government is in a position to take up this exercise?

At least Rs.3000 crore will be needed to separate the +2 and + 3, said he.

While colleges are closing down one by one subject due to non availability of faculty, how can we implement the recommendations? , asked he.

At least in Government colleges more than 1000 posts of lecturers are vacant and there are lack of teachers to teach science subjects like Chemistry, Biology and even Physics in colleges.

So all those classes are being closed down in colleges as for last 12 years there is no recruitment of lecturers for the government colleges.

This has resulted in recent +2 results as private Science colleges have taken the lead, while students in government colleges performed badly.

Hard fact is that there are no teachers to teach in these government run colleges and students are left at the mercy of coaching centers.