Government financing of education and research helped this nation thrive and develop agriculture, canals, education, science, pharmaceuticals, railroads, aircraft and computers. It drives me nuts that some of our elected officials blather platitudes about the importance of education even as they seek to dismantle and de-fund the public school system, publicly funded research and our colleges and universities.
Meanwhile, in India:
The Indian government intends to increase its higher-education budget by 21 percent, to $2.79-billion from $2.22-billion, to help underwrite a sweeping expansion of the university system, according to an interim report presented this week in parliament, The Telegraph reported.
India’s University Grants Commission, the system’s regulator, has been allocated $1.32-billion, up from $1-billion last year, a 28-percent increase. The funds are aimed at kick-starting as many new higher-education institutions as possible before national elections that are scheduled for April and May, government officials said, according to The Telegraph.
The interim budget normally mirrors the actual budget, which is expected to be announced in the next couple of months.
“The extra funds are not so much for existing institutions but for the new institutions we hope to start soon as a part of the prime minister’s vision,” a senior official at the ministry in charge of higher education told the newspaper. Few other budget lines have seen any increases.
Truth be told, they do have some catching up to do:
India has only about 400 universities and 18,000 colleges to serve a population of 1.1 billion. Less than 12 percent of young people enter higher education. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has said he wants to raise the college-going rate to 21 percent by 2017.