Emphasis was laid by NITI Aayog official on the grim situation of higher education in India which needs reformation. Human expertise should be improved in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat while releasing a task force report on ‘Emergence of STEM education in India’, stated that there are shortcomings in the higher education system and the quality of country’s large number of graduated, postgraduates and PhDs, is questionable.
He further said that neglecting the higher education will lead to neglect of growth of the nation as a whole as higher education contributes to the nation’s growth. Comparing the investment in higher education in India to that in China the situation seems very serious. When China is spending around 565 billion dollars, out of which 145 billion dollars is spent on higher education whereas India spent only 12.5 billion dollars in overall education and from which only 4.5 billion dollars were spent on higher education.
In collaboration with several other professors across the country, the report has been prepared by the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) which highlights the issues in STEM and made recommendations to reform them. Expanding the diversity in STEM education on National priority and noting that women and racial minorities are disproportionally underrepresented particularly in the STEM-based private sector, this has been recommended by the report.
