The Commerce Ministry propose to allow private educational institutions to have their own curriculum as well as deciding the pay scales of the faculty that they appoint.

Varun Soni

The education sector in the country is in for a major overhaul, if proposal made by the Commerce Ministry are accepted by the government. The Ministry has charted plans to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the field of educational and recently released a consultation paper on the issue. The draft proposal are under discussion at the moment and suggestions have been invited from educationists and their ilk. Once the discussions are through, the Ministry will prepare a Cabinet peper and present it before the government for approval.

Says Gopal K. Pillai, Special Secretary, Commerce Ministry, “We want a lot of domestic reforms to take place in the education sector. In fact, our effort is to release the educational institutions of country from the ‘stranglehold’ of agencies like the UGC and the AICTE. The proposal deal with allowing private educational institutions – whether national or international – to have their own curriculum as well as decide the pay scales of the faculty the appoint”.

The Ministry has been spurred in to action by the fact, that around US$3.9 billion are spend annually by Indian students going abroad to study. “Something that they need not resort to once we open the sector to foreign investment. This will save them the hardshop of arranging finances for their study abroad as well as the country’s valuable foreign exchange. The establishment of foreign campuses in India is just one aspect of the draft – what we are proposing in allowing flexibility in the education sector,” says Pillai.

But, will allowing FDI into the education sector affect private institutes in the country? “Yes,” says Ishan Gupta, Co-Founder, Appin Knowledge Solutions, “it will surely affect private institutes in India as there will be tough competitions provided by foreign universities.”

Adds professor Arindam Chaudhuri, Dean, Center for Economic Research and Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of planning and Management (IIPM), “Ultimately, in any product or service market, it is only value that matters to the end consumer and educational services are no exception to this truism. Mindful of this, it should not affect any institute that offers high quality offerings in Indian or abroad. In an information economy, educational institutes cannot lure people, citing their ‘foreign credentials’ in the long run However, institutes with strong and vibrant academic legacies and traditions are bound to gain.”

But will this also result in healthy competition for Indian institutes? Says Professor M. P. Singh, Director, Ansal Institute of Technology, “Currently, the system is so rigid that it is difficult to bring changes into the higher educations system in country. A Vice-Chancellor consider he is successful if he is able to start the session on time, conduct the examination on time and declare the result in timely manner. The transfer of credits earned from one institute to another is a practice that is prevalent in India, but is is characteristic feature of educations in advanced countries. We should adopt this system to give flexibility to our student who are transferring from one institute to another.