DU Act is a lock on higher education in Delhi: Sisodia
NEWDELHI: Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia has demanded that the Delhi University Act, 1922, be amended since it prohibits the constitution of another affiliating university in the city. He said the law prevents development in the field of higher education in the Capital.
Sisodia said every year almost 2.5 lakh students pass Class 12 in the city but only about 25,000-30,000 students are able to get admission in DU. The minister was addressing the 65th meeting of the Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) at Vigyan Bhawan on Tuesday.
“The Act, which was constituted almost a 100 years ago by the British, has put a lock on the development in higher education in Delhi. Under this Act, other than DU no new affiliating university can be opened,” a statement released by the government quoted Sisodia as saying.
He said apart from DU, around 70,000-80,000 students take admission in non-affiliating universities, skill centers, vocational colleges. He said that the government, in the last three years, has NEWDELHI: Delhi University has sent around 100 additional names of experts to the city government for finalising members of governing bodies (GBS) of 26 colleges funded by the government. The university and the government have been locked in a tussle over the formation of GBS in government-funded DU colleges for almost a year now.
opened new campuses of these universities, increasing the seats by 15,000.
“Despite this, till we don’t have a clear way to create new affiliating universities, it will be difficult to promote higher education in the city. The Delhi government has prepared a draft to open a skill development university and a humanitarian course based university but no progress is being made due to the DU Act,” the statement said.
Sisodia also said that rather than debating if ancient Indian scientists and thinkers made an
“We sent around 100 additional names to the government for the formation of governing bodies of colleges that are partly or totally funded by them.the list has been received. We have also requested the government to release the funds to these colleges,” said Devesh K Sinha, dean of colleges. important invention before or after western scientists, the country should focus on how we have made use of that ancient knowledge in the field of education and our laboratories for improvement of human beings.
“Just praising ancient scientists will not make India’s future bright. Till we focus only on believing the knowledge created by our ancestors, we will fall in backward nations’ category. We should focus on knowing the ancient knowledge through educational and scientific experiments,” he said.