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UGC committed to inclusive agenda for disadvantaged sections

Special Correspondent

From this year, 13 universities would offer courses in inclusiveness

CHENNAI: The University Grants Commission is committed to an inclusive agenda for the disadvantaged sections in higher education as a means of equitable development, UGC Chairman Sukhadeo K. Thorat said on Saturday.

The Commission was addressing multiple exclusions that denied the disadvantaged education rights and would follow an inclusive, holistic policy, he said at the inauguration of a national conference on `Higher Education and Inclusive Development,' organised by the University of Madras' Department of Econometrics.

From this year on, 13 universities would offer courses in inclusiveness. The commission would support educational institutions in backward regions. Inclusive education was the major focus of the Eleventh Plan. Exclusion in higher education fell into two categories: entire groups and individuals. Certain sections such as Scheduled Castes, religious minorities and women were at a disadvantage. While the national gross enrolment stood at 10 per cent in 2005, it was only 4.5 per cent for tribals, seven for Scheduled Castes and nine for Other Backward Classes. Among the other castes, it touched 90 per cent. The percentage of women in the gross enrolment was a mere seven per cent, while it was eleven per cent for men. The percentage of rural poor was less than two and seven among urban poor.

As such, Indian society faced complex problems of exclusion, which had to be studied while designing higher education programmes, Mr. Thorat said.

The recent budget was an "economic elaboration of the principles of social inclusion," since, for the first time, the allocation for education, health and agriculture had been increased by 34.2 per cent, 21.9 per cent and 53.7 per cent respectively, said M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman, Madras Institute of Development Studies.

Education had been made the core of the development process in the last three years, and inclusion of the disadvantaged would have to be done at both the social and spatial levels. The feudal mindset that the higher education was the preserve of the elite had to change, he said.

Deeper deliberations were needed to influence agencies such as the UGC to formulate higher education policies, Xavier Alphonse, member, UGC. Access, equity, affordability and opportunity should combine in the pursuit of excellence in education.

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