'Politicians come in way of educational reforms'

Politicians pose the biggest challenge in implementing educational reforms in the country because many own educational institutions themselves, said Kapil Sibal, Union minister for human resource development on Monday.

Politicians pose the biggest challenge in implementing educational reforms in the country because many own educational institutions themselves, said Kapil Sibal, Union minister for human resource development on Monday.

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Sibal was speaking on the occasion of eighth Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Lecture at the Tata Theatre in Nariman Point.

He pointed to the need for state administrations to change their structures to ensure that students across the country can have access to a “national knowledge network”. Sibal reiterated the ministry’s plan to connect India’s 26,000 colleges and 800 universities through a network of fibre-optics, giving students across the country free access to a national knowledge network.

“The state governments have an enormous responsibility to change their structures so that they can allow that information and data to flow freely to students so they can access what they want and discard what they do not want,” he said.

Sibal is also working on bringing universities across the country on board a common semester system as well as means to allow students greater flexibility with courses and credits. He also addressed aspects of the Right to Education Act, which he described as essential for creating a “critical mass” of students going for higher education and subsequently working in research.