By IANS,
New Delhi : Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday unveiled a slew of legislative, policy and administrative initiatives for the education sector during the first 100 days of the government. Some of the major moves are as follows:
Legal
* To enact the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education bill.
* Evolve consensus to set up an All India Madrassa Board.
* An autonomous overarching regulatory and assessment authority for higher education. It would subsume the University Grants Commission, the All India Council of Technical Education and the Medical Council of India.
* A law to prevent, prohibit and punish malpractices in education sector.
* A law to regulate entry and operation of foreign educational providers.
* A law to amend the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act to strengthen the commission.
* A law to amend the Copyright Act, 1957, to address the concerns of various stakeholders.
* To explore possibility of a law to create an independent accreditation body in school education.
Policy
* Launching a scheme to provide interest subsidy on educational loans taken by weaker sections for professional courses.
* Evolving a ‘brain-gain’ policy to attract talent from across the world to the existing and new institutions.
* To formulate a mechanism for public private partnership (PPP) in school education.
* Make Class 10 board examinations optional.
* To replace marking system by grades for standard nine and 10 in schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education.
* Madrassa modernisation and skill development for Muslim children.
* ‘Equal opportunity offices’ in all universities for effective implementation of schemes for disadvantaged sections of society.
Administrative
* Operationalise newly set up 12 central universities and two Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
* Review the functioning of ‘deemed universities’.
* Academic reforms in semester system, choice-based credit system, regular revision of syllabi, impetus to research etc.
* Modernisation of copyright offices.
* 5,000 colleges and university departments to be provided broadband internet connectivity.
* Financial assistance to states to establish at least 100 new polytechnics.
* Financial assistance to states for 100 hostels for women.
* Direct credit of scholarship into the bank accounts of 41,000 boys and 41,000 girls.