Prakash Javadekar was the chief guest at an education conference being held at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College in Sector 3.
Speaking on the first day of an education conference at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College in Sector 3, Dwarka, Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar stressed on the need for innovation and research in higher education.
The conference is being held over two days and includes professors, vice-chancellors and educationists from across 22 states in India. Javadekar has been invited as the event’s chief guest.
Javadekar spoke about how education was crucial to the development of a nation and how teachers should actively engage in formulating reforms so the ministry could analyse and implement them. He also encouraged ad-hoc teachers in Delhi University, saying, “There are at present 9,000 ad-hoc teachers in the university, which means 9,000 vacant positions. They will be filled by competent and efficient teachers, and current ad-hoc teachers will also be considered eligible.”
He also felt that research should be compulsory only for university-level and not for college-level professors. “Research magazines can be a burden on college professors. I feel they should be promoted based on their competency and on student feedback,” he said.
As former environment minister, he felt it was every institute’s duty to think about its carbon footprint — its energy-saving measures, its greenery promotion and its encouragement of issues such as water conservation.
Javadekar added that the government would invest Rs 20,000 crore in the next three years under HEFA (Higher Education Financing Agency) on setting up state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities for students. “We will give out interest-free loans in the next financial year under HEFA,” he said. “The HRD Ministry will also introduce reforms to the UGC [University Grant Commission] and to the AICTE [All India Council For Technical Education].”
Referring to the Bill passed yesterday in Lok Sabha for the autonomy of IIMs, he said the move would make the education system more effective and push them to do their best.
