Year End Review 2019: Ministry of Human Resource Development

• 30 Mar 2020

Important Schemes and Policies

Draft National Education Policy, 2019

• Seeks to address the challenges of: (i) access, (ii) equity, (iii) quality, (iv) affordability, and (v) accountability faced by the current education system.

Key Highlights

• Extending the RTE Act to include early childhood education and secondary school education, thereby extending the coverage of the Act to all children between the ages of three to eighteen years. Currently, the RTE Act provides for free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to fourteen years.
• There should be no detention of children till class eight. Instead, schools must ensure that children are achieving age-appropriate learning levels.
• State Census Examinations for students of classes three, five and eight to track students’ progress throughout their school experience.
• To reduce the stress levels of students, the Committee recommended restructuring the board examinations to test only core concepts, skills and higher order capacities.
• Restructuring of higher education institutions into three types: (i) research universities focusing equally on research and teaching; (ii) teaching universities focusing primarily on teaching but conducting significant research as well; and (iii) colleges focusing only on teaching in undergraduate education.
• Setting up of the National Higher Education Regulatory Authority which would replace the existing individual regulators in higher education, including professional education.

Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Program (DHRUV)

• To identify and encourage talented children to enrich their skills and knowledge

NISHTHA – National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement

• To improve learning outcomes at the elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training Programme.

Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP)

• A five-year vision plan aiming at ushering transformation in India’s higher education system by implementing strategic interventions in the sector over five years (2019-2024).
• Sets out to deliver further on principles of Access, Inclusion, Quality, Excellence and enhancing employability in Higher Education.

Deeksharambh

• It is a Student Induction Programme aimed to help new students feel comfortable and get accustomed to the new environment by inculcating in them the ethos and culture of the institution.

PARAMARSH

• A scheme to mentor institutions seeking National Assessment and Accreditation Council accreditation.

Institutions of Eminence (IoE)

• 10 institutions in public sector and 10 institutions in private sector have been declared as IoE.
• Each Public institute (IoE) will be eligible to receive Rs. 1000 crore during next 5 years.

Scheme for Transformational and Advanced Research in Sciences (STARS)

• Launched in February, 2019. To be implemented, monitored and managed by IISc, Bangalore.
• For promoting translational, India-centric research in Sciences.
• With the key objective of supporting socially relevant research, the following 6 basic thrust domains have been identified: Physics, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Nanosciences, Data Sciences & Mathematics and Earth Sciences.

Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)

• It is a centrally sponsored scheme launched in October 2013 that aims at providing strategic funding to higher education institutions throughout the country.

Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (IMPRESS)

• To support social science research in the higher educational institutions and to enable research to guide policymaking.

SWAYAM 2.0

• Launch of SWAYAM 2.0 with enhanced features and facilities.
• To offer Online Degree Programmes through SWAYAM by Top Ranking Universities.
• SWAYAM 1.0 was Launched in July 2017 with the Objectives of equal access to quality education, increase GER in Higher Education from 26 to 30 in next 5 years.
• Key Features of SWAYAM 2.0 –
  
  • Higher Scalability and Performance
  • Enhanced features for faculty and students
  • Improved assessment and evaluation
  • Internationalisation
  • Translation to Indian languages
  • Local chapters and mentors
  • Offering of On-line Degrees
• SWAYAM PRABHA- DTH Educational Channels: For telecasting high quality educational programs through 32 DTH channels on 24x7 basis to reach out to student/learners of India with wide reach and minimal cost.

Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS)

• For providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting in April 2019 through the National Apprenticeship Promotional Scheme (NAPS).
• The program aims to enhance the employability of Indian youth by providing ‘on the job work exposure’ and earning of stipend.

National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT)

• PPP Model between MHRD and EdTech companies for offering Adaptive and personalized learning through Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the students with specific emphasis on students from economically and socially backward regions.

Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy (STRIDE)

• Launched in July 2019 for promoting quality research by faculty and creation of new knowledge.

Integrated Online junction for School Education ‘Shagun’

• It is an over-arching initiative to improve school education system by creating a junction for all online portals and websites relating to various activities of the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Government of India and all States and Union Territories.

Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+)

• The GIS based mapping portal gives information about location of more than 15 lakh schools in the country.

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) 2.0

• Diksha Portal was launched in 2017 for providing digital platform to teachers giving them an opportunity to learn and train themselves and connect with teacher community. This initiative has been taken forward to enhance coverage and improve the quality of e-content for teachers.

Performance Grading Index (PGI)

• To objectively evaluate the performance of the school education system in the States/UTs, MHRD has designed a 70 indicators based matrix called Performance Grading Index (PGI) to grade the States and UTs.

Operation Digital Board (ODB)

• The aim is to provide by March 2023, two smart classrooms for every secondary/senior secondary school.

Important Body

Higher Education Financing Agency

• Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) was incorporated in 2017 as a joint venture of MHRD and Canara Bank with agreed equity participation in the ratio of 91% and 9% respectively.
• Its objective is to finance the creation of capital assets in premier educational institutions in India.
• HEFA finances for HEIs, KVs, NVs, AIIMS and other educational institutions of the Ministry of Health.
• It is registered under Section 8 [ Not-for-profit] under the Companies Act 2013 as a Union Govt company and as Non–deposit taking NBFC-ND with RBI.
• Aims to fund projects to the tune of Rs. 100,000 crore by 2022.