The Union human resource development minister on Thursday said that the Centre strongly opposed “privatisation of educational institutions”.
Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said that Centre strongly opposed “privatisation of educational institutions”.
Addressing mediapersons at the 36th annual convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) on Thursday, Sibal categorically stated that privatisation was a dirty word. “I think privatisation is a very dirty word. We do not believe in privatising education. Educational institutions have to serve a societal purpose,” he said.
Sibal’s remark comes in the awake of speculation about privatisation of IIMs, after a proposal by a committee constituted by the human resource development ministry.
The committee recommended collection of substantial donations from corporate institutions and alumni to be appointed as members of the IIM society. The panel proposed the membership fee for corporate bodies be Rs20 crore, for ex-students Rs3 crore and other individuals Rs5 crore. Experts believe that it would pave the way for privatisation of IIMs.
However, Sibal stated that the United Progressive Alliance government was not against private participation in the education sector. “I do not mean there should be no private participation in education. It is different from privatisation. Private participation must serve public goal,” said Sibal.
Sibal said autonomy to institutes of excellence like IIMs was “necessary”. He said that government was in favour of granting full autonomy to the boards of IIMs to select their respective chairman and director. “We want the IIMs’ boards to select their respective chairman and director so that we (the government) distance ourselves from the (selection) process. The board can set up a search committee and give us the names to be appointed,” he said.
Sibal expressed happiness on India achieving progress in its literacy rate, as stated in the latest census report released on Thursday.
“I firmly believe we are at the cusp in the next 10 years to achieve full literacy. There will be lot of pressure on educational institutions, more so as transformation of society is taking place. We will need management solutions to very complex problems,” he said.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman of the IIM-B board of governors and IIMB director, Prof Pankaj Chandra and host of faculty members also attended the convocation.
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