‘Target set to up gross enrollment ratio in higher education to 50% by 2030’

ANAND (GUJ): India has set the target to raise its gross enrolment ratio in higher education to 50 per cent by 2030 from the present 27 per cent in its effort to become a developed economy by involving more people to study and join the skilled workforce, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here Saturday.

Pradhan said India’s goal to become a developed nation by 2047 is not a “utopian idea”. The country is committed to improving the living standards of people and quality of education, making transportation sustainable and affordable, and reducing the gap in economic opportunities, he said.

“India’s gross enrolment ratio in higher education today is 27 per cent and our aim is to increase it to 50 per cent by 2030. Only then shall we become a developed economy,” Pradhan said while addressing the 13th convocation of Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT).

Gross enrolment ratio compares the enrolment at a specific level of education to the population of the age-group that is most age-appropriate for that level.

“We will become a developed economy when more people study and become a skilled workforce. For this, language proficiency is as important as research and skill development,” he said.

He said that the National Education Policy (NEP) has envisaged mother tongue-based education till Class 8 and research in mother language. “If we get clarity of a subject in our mother tongue until the substantive years of mental development, we can gain mastery on any subject in the world,” he said.

India has today become the 5th largest economy in the world because of the dream for which “our forefathers sacrificed” their lives, and because of the contribution made by them in their capacities as farmers, teachers, small businessmen, bureaucrats, scientists, and industrialists, he said.