Target set to up gross enrollment ratio in higher education to 50% by 2030: Dharmendra Pradhan

ANAND: 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).

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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.

The Union minister 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. He said that the country has made up its mind to become a developed nation by 2047. “Developed India is not any utopian idea or an element of imagination,” he said.

India's economy, AI

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. “The size of our economy today is nearly $4 trillion, and (it) will become a $5 trillion economy in the next few years, and a $7 trillion economy by 2030. By 2047, we will increase the size of our economy to $30 trillion,” he said.

He said that Gujarat’s milk revolution, cooperative movement, and entrepreneurship are reaching other parts of the country, and the state is laying the roadmap for 2047. “This is the roadmap of 2047, when the living standard and health care of the people improve, education becomes better, transportation system becomes affordable and sustainable, gap in economic opportunity reduces, and everybody gets opportunity for a respectable living in society… these will be the preconditions of a developed India,” he said.

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Pradhan said that because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “leadership and vision”, India’s tax collection has increased and the country is leading in digital transactions. Addressing the graduating students, he said Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an inevitability. “Today, we may not find AI as a thing of importance, but in the next five years, we are going to be influenced by AI. It will no longer be a topic for computer science studies,” he said. The minister said AI will be needed for the study of literature, medical science, and farm work. AI is an outcome of emerging technology and deep-tech research, subjects which are being implemented as per the NEP, he said.

“PM Modi says that we have to make youth job creators from job seekers, entrepreneurs and wealth creators. This is how the number of startups in the country has increased from 100 in 2014 to 1 lakh today,” he told the young audience. India has positioned itself as a global leader in digital transactions. While Apple is making 12 per cent of its phones here, semiconductor is an important sector for India, he said. “Because of its intellectual capacity, innovation, and risk-taking aptitude, Gujarat is going to be at least two decades ahead of other parts of the country, and this university (CHARUSAT) is a catalyst for the same,” Pradhan added.