Sibal against for-profit educational institutions

New Delhi, Nov 9 : The government is not going to give up its opposition to for-profit educational institutions as any collapse of such entities would impact students.

"If profit means giving dividend to shareholders from fees that parents pay, then my position is no," said Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal here Monday.

"Nowhere in the world this happens. Education institutions are not like some company that can wind up one day. We cannot allow educational institutions to go bust," said Sibal at the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit.

The minister also said there was talk of using latest technology to bring higher education to a greater mass, but the main responsibility of the government remained in promoting primary education.

"Out of the 509-million workforce, 70 percent haven't got primary education. We first need to get the schooling system right," said Sibal, who is also a distinguished lawyer.

The minister also spoke about using the unique identification number, the first set of which is going to be rolled out in about a year, for identifying and monitoring India's primary education programme.

"Each child will be given a unique identification number, which we will use to determine if he or she has dropped out or not," he said.

Among some other measures to reform India's education sector, Sibal said his ministry was soon going to having a website compulsory for educational institutions, where the school's infrastructure facilities and faculty will have to be spelt out.

"That is going to be part of the law, and we are going to take away their recognition if they violate this," said Sibal.

He also said bills to reforms the education sector, including setting up an independent accrediting body, will be introduced in the next two sessions of parliament.