In order to improve the quality of education in MP, Union
government, Madhya Pradesh government and the World Bank signed a US$ 300
million credit agreement on Tuesday.
As per the World Bank, the idea is to improve the
effectiveness of the higher education system in Madhya Pradesh to improve
student learning outcome in select government-run higher education institutions
in the state, particularly for the disadvantaged groups. The credit will be
provided by International Development Association (IDA) -World Bank's
concessionary lending arm with a maturity of 25 years, including a five year
grace period. The project will directly benefit 3.6 million students, 10,800
academic staff and 1,400 administrators and officers in nearly 200 government
colleges and universities. As stated, main objective is to improve quality of
higher education in government institutions, so that they can use funds to
provide education for one and all. The project will also help create centers of
excellence in select colleges and university departments to prepare best
practice teaching-learning and research. Raj Kumar, joint secretary of economic
affairs on behalf of Union government, KK Singh, principal secretary, higher education,
on behalf of MP government and Onno Ruhl, World Bank country director, India
are the people who signed this agreement. This will surely boost up higher
education as enrollment has doubled in recent years i.e. from 8.4 million
students in 2001 to 17 million students in 2011. Of these, nearly 10 per cent
or 1.6 million higher education students are enrolled in university or colleges
in MP.
While the statistics show a higher enrollment, the fact is
that only 13 per cent of scheduled caste students and 7.5 per cent of scheduled
tribe students are enrolled in higher education. People are not sure about
quality too. As per a report, 77 per
cent of employers in MP said weak technical skills were the most important reason
for rejecting a job applicant.
Tags: World Bank
Higher Education
Madhya Pradesh
International Development Association
