Over 300 central university administrators and top functionaries of 35,000 colleges will be trained through IIM-designed modules in leadership and financial management and on how to prevent discrimination as part of workshops that are to be held in five cities.
The HRD ministry said that the Regional Workshops on Leadership for Academic Excellence in Higher Education are being organised jointly by UGC and itself at Bengaluru, Mumbai, Guwahati, Delhi and Chandigarh for VCs, pro-VCs, and other senior academic administrators.
Among the topics to be covered in the workshop will be Leadership - Management Framework (Management, Creating and Developing a Shared Vision), Analysis of Existing Reality (Barriers to Implementation), Processes for Achieving Vision, Role of Leader, Accreditation, Financial Management in Higher Education, etc., according to an official statement here.
A source said that the workshops will also focus on "how to take everyone along" in the light of the controversy triggered by the Rohith Vemula suicide and tensions on the JNU and NIT Srinagar campuses.
The decision to hold these workshops was taken during a meet of state education ministers in February under HRD Minister Smriti Irani's chairmanship, the statement said.
It was also decided that the modules for these workshops would be developed by the IIMs and can be adopted by the state governments in organising similar workshops.
The content development, academic execution and provision of resource persons has been vested with the IIMs for the regional conferences, with IIM-Udaipur acting as the coordinator.
"The objective of the workshops is to promote introspection on the present culture and processes of each university and discuss ways of creating a shared vision so that all stakeholders can jointly contribute to its overall aspirations," the statement said.
After the regional conferences, similar conferences will be held state-wise by the state resource persons for college principals and other educational administrators.
The conferences will be held on April 15-16 at Bengaluru, April 18-19 at Mumbai, April 20-21 at Guwahati, April 22-23 at Delhi and April 25-26 at Chandigarh.
A mechanism will also be put in place to monitor the effectiveness of the workshops after six months and one year.
The study said the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 1:56 (one
teacher for every 56 students) was very high among the study states due to two lakh vacant posts for teachers.
It said 63 per cent of primary schools in Bihar do not meet the mandated PTR of 1:30 (one teacher for every 30 students).
It was found that Bihar spent 51.6 per cent of school education budget on teachers' salary (in 2015-16), which is the lowest among the study states, CGBA Director Subrat Das said.
This, he said, was in contrast with the popular perception that huge majority of budget allocation goes to pay salaries.
Bihar spent the highest among study states - 21.9 per cent of its budget in 2015-16 on "incentives" meant for bi-cycles, uniform and books to promote enrolment and retain students in schools but it spent the lowest amount on teachers' training and school monitoring.
Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) infrastructure norms are not met entirely by any school in Bihar as none of the school fulfilled the criteria of having all facilities like drinking water, girls' toilets, boundary wall, playground, ramp and kitchen shed, the study said.
The state has increased its allocation to 22.6 per cent of the school education budget on marginalised children, it added.
