The Times of India |
PUNE: Educational institutions in the country have coldshouldered the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) launched by the Union ministry of human resource and development launched four years ago. More than 200 universities (including autonomous), 18,000 colleges and over 6,000 vocational education institutions have failed to respond to the survey’s details despite continuous follow-up from the ministry . The survey is an indicator of educational parameters like gross enrolment ratio, pupil-teacher ratio, gender parity index and per student expenditure. In the past four years, the survey has reported that the number of higher educational institutions in the country is growing each year but not once in four years has there been 100% response from institutions. In order to find out if colleges and universities in the country meet the parameters set by the MHRD, a country-wide annual survey was launched in 2011. Besides finding the number of students in higher education in the country , the survey also aimed at improving the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in different sections of the society including reserved category , women among others.
The ministry has decided to improve the GER from 12% in the 11th five-year plan to 30% by 2020. A reminder to fill details of college online by the ministry is being made regularly as soon as the survey for the particular year was launched. Despite repeated attempts, the MHRD has failed to achieve 100% response from institutions. W N Gade, vice-chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University, said it was not just the AISHE survey , the same poor response is evident when it comes to issues like accreditation or information sharing. “Colleges and institutions in the country shy away from the survey details. Many of them do not want to share facts and figures because the survey tries to find out every small detail related to the institution including infrastructure, funding, faculty ratio, salaries among others.They do not reveal the correct information because they are afraid of action from government. If the true details do come out, many colleges would shut down,” Gade added.
Educationist and president of the state federation of principals, Nandakumar Nikam, said the responsibility is not just with the union ministry, but the state government must also make enough efforts to ensure that all colleges in its jurisdiction fulfill the mandatory requirement to complete the survey . “If the institutions have not filled up details, the state government must take prompt action and follow up with the institutions. Many institutions also do it on purpose to hide details about the college, especially where there is low enrolment in engineering and management institutes. However, if the state government does proper follow up, these institutes shying away from survey intentionally can be pointed out and acted upon immediately ,” he added. The survey reveals that there is a constant rise in the number of colleges, vocational institutes and also autonomous and deemed universities but many still shy away from providing information in the survey. — Courtesy
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