State prepares own education policy

“The need of our own education policy was realised in the wake of no such policy framework at the state government level. Though the Gujarat education department is guided by Government Resolutions (GR) passed from time to time, there is no single comprehensive policy. This draft policy would be released for discussion during the Vibrant Summit,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Education) Arvind Agrawal.

Sources in the KPMG revealed that the draft education policy is based on four aspects, including quality, access, equity of treatment and employability. “While preparing this draft policy, not only national practices were taken into consideration but also some of the international practices in education have been incorporated after a thorough research. Depending upon the wider feedback from a large number of stakeholders during this summit the policy will help finalise,” revealed the source.

As the state government receives major funding from the Central government in the education sector, the education officials admitted that the policy will be in tandem with the Centre’s policies on education though keeping its state specific areas into consideration.

“Issues like salt pan workers and migratory population are Gujarat specific issues which can not find a mention in the national policy and these cannot be overlooked while framing a policy on education. Thus, such issues have been specifically taken care of in this draft education policy,” revealed an education department official working on the project.

The education policy would govern thousands of primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities run in the state. At present, Gujarat has more than 34,000 government primary schools, over 9,500 secondary schools – including government (713), grant-in-aid (5,492) and self-financed (3,390) – nearly 6,000 higher secondary schools, including government (379), grant in aid (2,772) and self-financed (2,814) schools.

Similarly, the present status of colleges stands at 1,032, including 72 government, 356 granted and 604 private colleges. On the other hand, a total of 126 and 121 diploma and degree colleges, respectively are run by government, private and on public private partnership in the state.

While, the state education department’s latest figures on the higher and technical education reveals a total number of 53 universities, including 2 deemed universities, 6 institutions under the Central government, 30 state universities enacted by the Government of Gujarat and 15 private universities.