PM admits lack of competent faculty in higher education

Chandigarh, Nov 3 : Admitting that there was a problem of getting competent faculty in adequate numbers for the new institutions of higher learning in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that to address this issue, the Central Government had announced a very progressive pay package for attracting and retaining talented faculty.

"The University Grants Commission has raised the entry level standards for fresh faculty members and has also started new training programmes for them" Dr Singh said after receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) at a Special Convocation of the prestigious Panjab University, an institution where had studied and taught.

He also laid the foundation of a multi purpose auditorium on the university campus. The auditorium with a 2500 capacity will be the biggest in the region.

Addressing the faculity and students of the university, the Prime Minister assured that the government would continue to look for ways and means of ensuring that the faculty in institutions of higher education was of a very high quality.

Turning to quality of higher education, Dr Singh lamented that most of the institutes produce pass-outs who are nowhere near international standards. Even if the targets of higher access and enrollment are meant, huge amounts are spent on higher education and a large number of new institutions are opened, this issue of quality will not get addressed by itself, he added.

"In fact, one dimension of the quality deficit is the difficulty being faced in recruiting top class faculty for the new IIMs, IITs, Central Universities and other such institutions that the Government had decided to establish in the last five years", he admitted whole emphasising on structural reforms in the higher education system to which the government was fully committed.

The reports of the National Knowledge Commission and the "Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education" under the chairmanship of Prof Yashpal, provide the basis for a series of reforms that the government intends to undertake in the coming months, he added. This would be in addition to the steps that had already been taken, including introduction of the semester system, choice based credit system, merit based admission procedures and continuous internal evaluations, he said.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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