WB Credit To Boost Engineering Education

 

  

Notwithstanding the furor over the rising cost of technical education, an eminent educationist has expressed complete support for privatization and liberalization of the education sector.

Prof N S Ramaswamy, founder-director of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, feels that just as liberalization has brought in better performance and productivity in the corporate world, it will bring about greater competitiveness in the Indian educational sector.

Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are the other beneficiaries. The credit from the International Development Association, World Bank's concessionary lending arm, has a 35-year maturity with a 10-year grace period and a 0.75 per cent service charge.

Shashi Shrivastava, senior education specialist with the World Bank, said the credit had been approved under the technical/engineering quality improvement programme, conceived to help India supply its economy with excellence in technical and engineering education. Some 20 well-performing engineering institutions will be selected to lead the project, under which a network of further 60 to 80 institutions will be developed. "This will help over 1,00,000 engineering students," according to a World Bank statement.

Infrastructure at GLA, Mathura

While a major chunk of the funds will be utilized for quality-enhancing activities such as the introduction of teaching and research programmes in cutting-edge technologies, and modernization of existing programmes and facilities at the institutes, some amount will be also spent for faculty training, extension services and the development of new facilities, Shrivastava said. "This will, however, depend on long-term plans presented by each of the selected institutions." He said the project was specifically designed to support engineering colleges, technical universities and polytech-nics. Institutions will be selected for the project on a competitive basis depending on their capabilities and long-term planning for quality improvement, he added.

While educationists hailed the development, saying there is an urgent need to upgrade the quality of technical and engineering education to provide students with a virtuous cycle of opportunities, Maharashtra minister for higher and technical education, Dileep Walse-Patil, said the project will give institutions an opportunity to further enhance the quality of technical education.

Source-- TOI