The Centre is planning to bring about some changes in the IIM curricula as the present curricula suits the western multinationals? needs more, according to human resource development minister Kapil Sibal.
?Our IIM curricula has been designed in such a way that it meets the requirement of the western multinationals more than that of India’s needs. Our agricultural sector and rural banks?especially that deals with micro credit? needs IIM trained people. We are trying to change the curricula to suit our Indian needs,? Sibal said at an education conclave organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
Sibal however, did not want to clarify the sort of changes the ministry was planning to make in the curricula or whether it has started working on it. But he wanted to bet big on the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority Bill- 2010, which could pave way for setting up 800 more universities and 40,000 more colleges. India currently has 504 universities and 26,000 colleges, absorbing only 14 million students a year , which is 12.4% of the total school pass outs. According to Sibal, this number has to go up to 40 million or 30% of the total school pass outs by 2020, for which 800 more universities and 40,000 more colleges are required.
While the government alone cannot set up so many universities and colleges and needs private sector participation, giving accreditation to the new universities and colleges would be a huge task, which required a new set of mechanism. The government has proposed setting up a national accreditation authority, under which licensed accrediting agencies would give accreditation to colleges and universities following certain government set parameters.
But the government wants every college and university to have its own website declaring every details .The accrediting agencies would bank more on the website declarations than on physical verifications. If at any point of time the website declarations were found to be wrong, the government would come up with heavy penal action, Sibal said.
