Srinagar, Aug 10: The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), Government of India is mulling to increase the number of female teachers in the higher education sector.
This was stated by the Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan in a written reply to a query whether the government has proposed to increase the number of female teachers in higher education.
“It is an endeavour of the Ministry of Education to increase the number of female teachers in Higher Education,” he said.
The minister further stated that there has been an increase of 7.57 percent in female teachers since 2015-16 in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as per the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20 report.
The union minister said a committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Director IIT-Mandi by the Joint Admission Board (JAB) to suggest suitable measures for improving female enrolment in the B.TechProgrammes in IITs.
“The recommendations of the Committee were considered by the IIT Council in its 51st meeting held on April 28 of 2017 and decided to increase female enrolment from 8 percent in 2016 to 14 percent in 2018-19. The female enrollment in reputed institutions further increased from 17 percent in 2019-20 to 20 percent in 2020-21 by creating supernumerary seats.
“To implement the above decision, 800 supernumerary seats were created in the year 2018-19, 1122 seats in 2019-20 and 1583 in 20-21. The female enrolment in B. Tech programmes of IITs have been increased to 19.83 percent in 2020-21 in comparison to 17.78 percent and 15.58 percent in year 2019-20 and 2018-19,” he said.
The Union minister further stated that the AISHE in its latest report has depicted that the overall enrolment of female students in higher education has been consistently increasing over the years.
The official figures also stated that the enrolment of female students has increased by about 18 percent from 1.60 crore in 2015-16 to 1.89 crore in 2019-20.
The union minister further stated that the government has take steps to promote education among girls and women wherein they have issued new UGC regulation for Open and Distance Learning that allows entry of reputed institutions to offer education on the distance mode.
“Use of ICT technology- SWAYAM portal to take the best teaching resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. Steps have been taken for opening of more centrally funded institutions,” he said.
The minister said the DSEL has encouraged opening of institutions by State and UT Governments through RashtriyaUchchatarShikshaAbhiyan (RUSA) which aims to achieve equity, access and excellence in higher education.
“The scheme supports components such as upgrading autonomous colleges to universities, clustering colleges to establish a university, setting up of new professional colleges in un-served and underserved areas as well as providing infrastructure grants to universities and colleges to scale up capacity,” he said.
He said as per the recommendations of National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, the government initiated various steps to ensure equitable access to the highest quality of education for all learners, especially women, regardless of social or economic background.
“A Gender Inclusion Fund will be constituted by the Government of India to provide quality and equitable education to all girls. The fund will focus on ensuring 100 percent enrolment of girls in schooling and a record participation rate in higher education as well,” he said.