CM Nitish Kumar. file photo
Dinanath Sahni, Patna. The newly formed department has become increasingly active in achieving the objective for which the Nitish government has formed the Higher Education Department. The government has laid emphasis on improving the integrity of higher educational institutions from a global perspective.
Priority has been set to improve the institutions by promoting quality and research work in higher education and improving the performance at the institutional level and improving the rankings. To achieve this goal, the government has taken steps and resolved to prepare a five-year plan and implement it 100 percent.
Higher Education Secretary Rajeev Roshan said that the priorities set by the government to bring major changes in higher education will be prepared and implemented rapidly in higher educational institutions. Cooperation of all higher educational institutions is necessary in this work.
Institutions lagging behind in national ranking will undergo surgery
According to the officials of the Higher Education Department, about six thousand crore rupees are being spent on educational institutions every year. Yet most of the universities and affiliated colleges are lagging behind in the national rankings.
Now the deficiencies prevalent in such universities and colleges will be investigated and then surgery will be done as per the need, accountability of the responsible officials in the concerned universities will be fixed and strict action will also be taken.
Without this, the initiative to improve universities and higher educational institutions will not be successful. Therefore, now an important initiative has been started to improve universities and colleges by making an action plan, in which short-term and long-term plans will be made. The objective of which is to make all the higher educational institutions of the state compete with the universities of national and international level.
Emphasis also on increasing the gross enrollment ratio of higher education
The Central Government has set a target of increasing the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of higher education in the country to 50 percent by the year 2035. This is also necessary for the country to stand in the category of developed countries.
In view of this, the Education Ministry has also asked the states to rapidly increase the gross enrollment ratio of higher education. At present the gross enrollment ratio of higher education in Bihar is around 20 percent, which is much less than the national target.
Although the Higher Education Department has directed to increase the enrollment rate in all the universities and colleges, but its pace is slow. Nevertheless, emphasis is being laid from the government level on increasing enrollment in higher education.
Now new courses will start soon
The Education Department believes that the purpose of forming the Higher Education Department is to implement the remaining initiatives of the National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP) in higher educational institutions.
These include initiatives like dropping and starting a course at any time, starting new courses based on industry demand, increasing research and innovation activities, adding employment-based courses, studying two courses simultaneously.
Higher educational institutions have not yet shown much interest in implementing these initiatives under NEP. Now every university and college will have to give priority to implementing the initiatives of NEP by making their own action plan.
Courses will also be implemented on the basis of demand at local level
Senior officials associated with the education department said that the government's planning includes increasing the capacity of higher educational institutions, as well as starting such courses which are in demand at the local level. That is, if an institute is located in an area where tourism activities are more, then they can be given suggestions for designing new courses related to tourism.
Similarly, in areas where there is a strong possibility of growth of agriculture-based industries, universities or higher educational institutions of that area will give suggestions for designing new agriculture-based courses. In this regard, the Higher Education Department will also get mapping of each area done.