The Centre is working on a survey to gather statistics about the higher education sector in the country which is to be completed ahead of the 12th five year Plan which begins in 2013. The survey will look at the gross enrollment ratio (GER) and the actual number of enrollments besides one point of contact for differential streams in higher education. The country?s current higher education GER is at 12.4% and the Centre intends to increase it to 30% by 2020.
?While there are authentic figures available on school education, there is absolute lack of clarity on numbers as far as higher education is concerned. A survey will establish what the real scenario is and also bring to light the fallacies propagated by various agencies which work with vested interests in mind,? said Sunil Kumar, additional secretary, higher education, at a summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently.
In fact, the ministry of human resource development (HRD) has set up a committee for mapping the number of students entering the existing higher education sector. The ministry plans to establish 374 new degree colleges all over the country one each in such district, which has GER below the national average. India’s GER in higher education is half of the world?s average, two-third of that of developing countries and around a fifth of the developed countries.