Kapil Sibal,minister of human resource development,on Monday refused to be made a party to the controversy surrounding the semester system for undergraduate courses being implemented at the Delhi University. I have been told previously to not interfere in the affairs of individual universities. I,as a minister,will not interfere, he said. Sibal was taking questions after delivering the Sixth Annual Public Lecture organised by the Indraprastha College for Women. He spoke on Chronic Problems and Creative Solutions: A Case for Innovative Thinking for Higher Education in India. The question was posed by a faculty of the college,who told Sibal that DU faculty were at loggerheads with Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental over the way in which the semester system was being implemented. She went on to ask Sibal whether he was in touch with the V-C and whether he would talk to him on behalf of the teachers. Dont ask me. If he does not listen,use other methods, said the minister,suggesting that the matter was one for the universitys executive and academic councils to decide. I am not involved in this issue. It is not my job, he said. Sibal acknowledged that all central universities will have to eventually move to the semester mode. No deadlines set have,however,been set and universities can take their own time if needed,he added. The minister started his speech rolling out statistics on where India stands in the education sector. He pointed to the unprecedented number of students the education sector will deal with after the implementation of the soon-to-be-notified Right to Education Act. Sibal said while 220 million children are at school,the percentage of those in the college-going age of 18-24 enrolling for higher studies is only 12.4 per cent,against the global average of 23 per cent. Sibal estimated that by 2020,the number of college-going students will rise from the current 26 million to 70 million. We will require nearly 40,000 new colleges and 1,000 new universities. Can the government of India finance so many universities? The answer is no, Sibal said,making a case for more private participation in the education sector.
