Galgotia University: Vekaiah Naidu Highlightes the Challenges in Higher Education

Addressing the Convocation of the Galgotia University in Greater Noida on Tuesday, 24th January 2017, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that the challenges of the higher education of the country need to be addressed in different areas. He further emphasised that it will help India to fully realise its human potential with equity.

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Challenges that the higher education sector of the country has been facing are -

• Dearth of motivated teachers
• Quality of education
• Lack of focus on research

The minister said that India had a glorious tradition of learning in its ancient Universities like Taxila and Nalanda. He further added that the advent of the British destroyed the basic foundation of the traditional Indian education and they imposed their intellectual colonisation. After the independence, the country had only 500 colleges affiliated to 20 Universities with an enrollment of less than one lakh of students. Now - after 7 decades - India's Higher education system has undergone a drastic change, added Naidu.

• India's Higher Education System is the 3rd largest in the world after the USA and China
• Country has 760 Universities
• 38,498 colleges
• 12,276 Stand Alone Institutions
• Total enrollment is 3.4 cores students

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The minister further said that the HRD Ministry has taken several measures to address these issues. Several new institutes have been established in last two and half years that includes six new IITs and seven new IIMs. The minister also said that under the initiative of Swayam Prabha- an online platform, high-quality educational courses taught at universities are being telecasted over DTH Channels. Further, the government has launched a programme called Visaka, to promote digital economy.