SHILLONG, JUNE 15 – Conceding to the demands of the north-eastern Chief Ministers, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has withdrawn the draft Cabinet note seeking exemption from earmarking of 10 per cent of gross budgetary support for the region. The decision was announced at a press conference by HRD Minister Arjun Singh on the concluding day of the review meeting of HRD schemes with the Chief Ministers of the region at Hotel Pinewood here this evening. Singh had presided over the meeting.
Singh also announced that an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) would be set up in the region within one and one-half year. The location of the IIM will be decided by the Minister of DONER in consultation with HRD and the Chief Ministers of the region. The IIM will be set up and operated by one of the established IIMs in the country after which it will function in an independent manner, the Union Minister revealed.
A group will be set up in the HRD Ministry for considering the specific issues in the region related to elementary, secondary, higher and technical levels of education. The group to be headed by the HRD Minister will meet at regular intervals. Appreciating the concern of the State Governments in the region on the funding pattern of ‘Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’ (SSA), Singh agreed to once again take up the issue of revising the pattern of Central assistance under SSA to 90:10 with the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance. Presently the funding pattern is 75:25.
The HRD Minister also announced several other schemes to raise the quality of education in the region. “One Central University in each State will be assisted during the current Plan period to set up either an Engineering or an Management faculty wherever these are not presently available,” he said.
States not having Central Universities will be provided assistance to set up a management school and an engineering faculty in one of the universities. All universities will be covered under the scheme by the end of the 11th five year plan.
IGNOU’s FM radio stations dedicated to education will start transmitting from Guwahati within three months. A second station will be set up at Shillong within eight months, according to Singh. Besides, the 135 Block Resources Centres set up in the region under SSA will act as study centres for carrying out IGNOU’s teacher training certificate courses for training of all the untrained teachers at the primary level.
“Training of teachers will be one of the areas of focus for the HRD Ministry,” he said, adding: “Norms for opening Anganwadi centres will be relaxed so that additional centres are sanctioned to ensure greater coverage and access to these services.”
Besides the host Chief Minister, DD Lapang, of Meghalaya, his Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga, Education Ministers of all the nine north -eastern States and senior officials of the Ministry and State Governments attended the two-day conference.