The Human Resources Development Ministry on Tuesday said a review of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is in the offing, in a bid to improve their functioning. HRD Special Secretary K M Acharya said, “A review of the UGC and the AICTE is very much on cards to make them more effective.” He was replying to a question at the Editors’ Conference on social issues held in the Capital.This review decision comes on the heels of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement that the role and functions of the UGC, AICTE and MCI is needed to be reviewed in the context of the large number of changes that have taken place in higher, professional and technical education in the country. Replying to a question on National Knowledge Commission’s suggestion for a single regulatory body in place of the UGC, commission chairman Sukhadeo Thorat said, “The NKC has a number of new ideas which are needed to be examined a lot more thoroughly before we put them into operation.”On the elementary education front, School Education and Literacy Secretary A K Rath said the target for the XIth Plan was 80 per cent literacy rate and reduction in gender gap in literacy to 10 per cent.Lauding flagship programmes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid-Day Meal, he said efforts would also be made to provide quality secondary education to students. Thrust would be laid on access to secondary level education to students in the age group of 15-16 years by 2015 and setting up of 6,000 model schools on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalayas in all blocks in the country, he said.
