The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Centre revolutionising higher education, says Prime Minister

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Centre revolutionising higher education, says Prime Minister

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Central government is working to revolutionise the higher education system and make the country one of the premier centres of education in the world.

Inaugurating the Scholarship Fund of the State Higher Education Council here on Sunday, he said the universities, however, could not become world-class centres of learning unless the country changed the way they were managed.

“They should create an atmosphere where intellectual inquiry, originality and ingenuity are encouraged rather than academic rot. They have to be given the maximum academic freedom and flexibility. They should be able to recruit the best teachers including the many Indians in top universities abroad.”

Recalling that India was once a premier education centre, Dr. Singh said one of the government’s initiatives would be to establish the ‘Nalanda University’ that would revive India’s ancient academic and intellectual links with East Asia.

The new Central University in Kerala could be similarly developed as a university of renown that served as an intellectual bridge with the countries of the Middle East.

The Prime Minister said the government was concerned about the declining interest among students in basic sciences. “This is a disturbing trend and we have tried to reverse it through innovative schemes such as INSPIRE, which stands for Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research.”

INSPIRE scholarship

INSPIRE was unprecedented in its scale and would provide scholarships of Rs.5,000 to one million young learners in the 10-15 age group who showed talent for science. The scheme provided funding for the entire education chain right up to the research level. “I hope that these initiatives will be complemented by similar efforts of the States such as the Fund that is being inaugurated today.”

The Fund, he said, could be a path-breaking initiative in public-private participation. The initiative was intended to ensure that no student in the State was denied the opportunity for higher education for want of financial support.

Earlier, launching the scheme, Dr. Singh distributed scholarships from the Fund to six students. Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan, who welcomed the Prime Minister, announced that the State government would contribute Rs. 12 crore more to the Fund in addition to the initial Rs.3 crore. Besides, the government would provide 50 per cent of the funds contributed by the public to the Fund as matching grant.

All sections of the population had come forward to contribute to the Fund and the scheme would grow into a people’s movement.

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