Javadekar credited all the past govts for steady improvement in facilities.
Emphasising that education is "beyond politics", HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said the government will make all efforts to fill vacancies of faculties and ensure students get quality education.
"Education is beyond politics... We should all resolve to work unitedly to improve education," he said and assured that adequate funds would be extended for research works at educational institutions. He was replying to a discussion in Lok Sabha on a Bill to establish the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Andhra Pradesh as an institute of national importance.
Later, the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by the House through voice vote. Crediting all the previous governments for the expansion in the field of education over the years, Javadekar said education was not a priority for the British and the strides have been made in independent India. Compensation, freedom and accountability are key for good teachers, the Minister said as he stressed the need for imparting quality education. "(Teacher) vacancies will be filled," he added.
A proposal to have a fund, which can go up to Rs 20,000 crore to help with infrastructure requirements and research activities at top educational institutions, would be taken to the Cabinet, Javadekar said.
In the Union Budget, the government had announced that it would set up Higher Education Financing Agency with an initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. On queries related to high fees being charged at higher education institutions, Javadekar said at NITs and IITs, there is fee waiver for SC/ST students and those with physical disabilities.
"It is not a case of reimbursement, it is fee waiver," he said.
For the NIT in Andhra Pradesh, the government has provided 140 acres of land and Rs 40 crore has been budgeted for this and "we will immediately come on the decision on DPR and release more funds," he said.
At present, NIT in Andhra Pradesh is functioning in another college campus.
The Bill, when it was envisaged in 2007, had 20 national institutes. Then, in 2012, five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and 10 new NITs were added to it, Javadekar said.
In 2014, there was one amendment for one institute in Bengal. "So, they became 36, and today, we are adding one more and that makes it 37 national important universities out of which 31 will be NITs," he noted.
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