Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia outlines Challenges for Higher Education in India at EDGE Conference

The plan raised the outlay on education sector from 6% to 20% of total outlay, thus making a paradigm shift in how national resources are spent. The architect of the plan and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia is a well know economist and recognized as a strong proponent of improving education systems and output in India. Speaking at a function in New Delhi, organized by EDGE 2009, to felicitate Dr Ahluwalia for his contribution to higher education sector, Dr Ahluwalia outlined the importance of the sector in the growth of India and the challenges it faces. Said Dr Ahluwalia, There is a consensus that in future the nations that will dominate the global stage will be the Knowledge Nations. India has a chance to be amongst such nations provided we are able to improve our current education delivery.Dr Ahluwalia outlined four broad challenges that Indian Education System is facing. He said, Indian education system has to expand its footprints to reach out to larger section of society. So Expansion of Education is the first challenge. Improving Quality of higher education is the second important challenge. The average quality of Indian education is not high enough. Third challenge is creating word class Education Institutions in India. At present there are only some IITs, IIMs on the list of Top 200 or 400 world institutions. Clearly, more institutions should be on this list.

The fourth and the final challenge is of creating Global Institutions. Even in top institutions, a minuscule percent of students come from foreign countries. Oxford University by contrast gets over 50% of students from outside of Britain.Dr Montek Singh Ahluwali was awarded as the EDGE Education Personality of 2009 at the EDGE forum on February 9, 2009. EDGE Forum was constituted under the leadership of Dr K Kasturirangan, former Chairman of ISRO and presently member of Rajya Sabha.