LOW facilities in HIGHER education

The report on 'HIgher education In India' prepared by the University Grants Commission said that majority of the institutions of higher education did not have good facilities and faculty, which was reflected in the assessment conducted by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council(NAAC). There are 417 universities and 20,676 colleges in the country.Of them, 140 universities and 3,492 colleges have been assessed by the NAAC, a sister organisation of the UGC, for quality control in higher education.
About 61% of the 140 universities were awarded B-grade by the NAAC, indicating they had deficiency in availibility of human resources in terms of quantity and quality of teachers.About 31% of them were given A-grade, showing they had better facilities. Seven percent of the accredited universities were graded C, indicating they had sub-standard facilities.
Majority of the colleges assessed by the NAAC also lacked adequate facilities. About 68% of the colleges were grade B, which show that they were lagging behind in facilities like library, computer centres, health centres, common room, gymnasiums, auditorium and seminar halls and quality teachers.
About 23% colleges were grade C, projecting a worse picture in terms of facilities in them.Only nine percent of the colleges were grade A, the report said. The findings in the report assume significance as they show that despite increase in funding, the results are yet to be seen in the institutions.
The Goverment has increased then funding in higher education and allocated about Rs 83,000 crore to the sector in the 11th plan.