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A national drive
to ensure access to knowledge and learning can transform India’s potential for
development, lift young Indians to new levels of understanding and competence,
and make India one of the leading knowledge societies in the world. This is the
central affirmation of the National Knowledge Commission in its 2006 Report to
the Nation, released here today. The Report was presented to the Prime
Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, by Commission Chairman Mr Sam Pitroda. The special
function was also marked by the Prime Minister’s inauguration of two national
knowledge portals, opening public access to knowledge and ideas on the issues
of Water and Energy.
Appointed by the Prime Minister in October
2005 with a three-year mandate, the Commission is assigned to prepare a
blueprint for radical improvement of knowledge access, knowledge creation and
application, by and for the Indian people. The assignment includes the generation
of practical plans for comprehensive improvement of education standards and
opportunities at all levels and notably the uplift of vocational knowledge and
skills. The Commission’s initiatives focus especially on youth and children,
who comprise 54 per cent of India’s people, and are its vast human resource of
talent and potential competence to meet both national and international needs.
The Report to
the Nation highlights key areas where change could significantly improve
people’s inclusion and capability in existing and new fields of knowledge use.
This would entail reform in education, learning processes, governance,
enrichment of knowledge institutions like libraries and centres of research and
learning. A major thrust is proposed in translation across all Indian languages
to further knowledge creation and information dissemination. Access to new
technologies and services for information provision and the transfer of
knowledge is a priority. The Commission has already submitted wide-ranging recommendations
for action to the Prime Minister. The Report today made these recommendations
public.
Based on a
year-long process of consultations with experts and representatives of
government, parliament, academia, industry, civil society and the media, the recommendations
are based on open and intensive discussion to identify priorities, concerns,
and needed action. The Commission Chairman Mr Pitroda expressed the hope that
the Report will generate further discussion and debate, so that public
participation enriches the Commission’s efforts. The same open consultative
process is being followed for the areas of agriculture, traditional knowledge,
professional education including medical, legal and management education, open
and distance learning, innovation and entrepreneurship, science and technology,
and intellectual property rights. The Commission is also discussing
environment, public health and gender.
The inauguration
of the two national web portals on Water and Energy marks the Commission’s bid
to enhance public access to information and knowledge on these two critical
development issues. To ensure that the recommended knowledge flow and outreach
is available to everyone, similar access is envisaged through the media of
print, audio-visual communication, library and information institutions and
services, and live interaction processes, in all languages. The promotion of
web portals on internet is just one of the Commission’s initiatives to open up
knowledge sources and resources for public use. The portals are designed to be
interactive, and will offer the user public web space to share information and
ideas and to create knowledge resources. The Commission has sought the
partnership of expert organisations to lead and ‘champion’ the development of
the portals. The Water portal has been
developed by the public charitable Arghyam Trust, and the Energy portal by
TERI. Public use portals and other
communication outreach are also likely on the issues of environment, health,
citizen’s rights and employment.
YSR/SH
Annexure
Key recommendations from National Knowledge Commission
in 2006
Libraries:
·
Set up a National Commission on Libraries
·
Prepare a National Census of all Libraries
·
Revamp Library and Information Sciences education, training,
and research
·
Re-assess staffing of libraries
·
Set up a Central Library Fund
·
Modernize library management
·
Encourage greater community participation in library
management
·
Promote Information Communication Technology applications in
all libraries
·
Facilitate donation and maintenance of private collections
·
Encourage Public Private Partnerships in LIS development
Translation:
·
Provide impetus for developing translation as an industry
·
Establish a store-house of information
·
Promote printed as well as virtual publication
·
Create and maintain various tools for translation
·
Provide quality training
·
Translate pedagogic materials
·
Project Indian languages and literatures within South Asia
and outside
·
Set up a national web portal
·
Organize annual National Conferences
·
Promote book launches, festivals, fellowships and prizes
etc.
·
Establish a National Translation Mission (NTM) to carry out
these activities
Language:
·
Teaching of English as a language should be introduced,
along with the first language, starting from Class I in school
·
Language learning must be integrated with content learning
·
The pedagogy of language learning should be suited to the
context
·
To meet the requirement of teachers, graduates with high proficiency
in English and good communication skills should be inducted
Knowledge Network:
·
Build a National Knowledge Network to connect 5,000 nodes
across institutions
·
Consider various options, including utilization of available
commercial networks
·
Security of data along with privacy and confidentiality to
be ensured
·
A Special Purpose Vehicle should be set up for coordination
and ownership
Right to
Education:
·
Central legislation is required to affirm the Right to
Education
·
The Central Government must provide the bulk of the
additional funds needed
·
The legislation should include a schedule of norms and
standards
·
There should be well-defined but flexible norms for
qualifications of teachers
·
The Right to Education should be justiciable
Vocational
Education:
·
Place vocational education entirely under the Ministry of
HRD
·
Increase the flexibility of vocational education within
mainstream education
·
Quantify and monitor the impact of vocational education
·
Increase resource allocation to vocational education
·
Expand capacity through innovative delivery models
·
Enhance the training options available for the unorganized
and informal sector
Higher
Education:
·
Create many more universities
·
Change the system of regulation for higher education
·
Increase public spending and diversify sources of financing
·
Establish 50 National Universities
·
Reform existing universities
·
Restructure undergraduate colleges
·
Promote enhanced quality
·
Ensure access for all deserving students
·
Affirmative action should account for multiple dimensions of
deprivation
National
Science and Social Science Foundation:
·
A National Science and Social Science Foundation to be established
to suggest policy initiatives to make India a leader in the creation and use
of knowledge, to ensure that science and technology are maximally used for
the betterment of the lives of people, and to develop the scientific temper
in the country
E-governance:
·
Re-engineer government processes before computerization
·
Identify and simplify 10 to 20 important services
·
Develop common standards for services and transactions with
citizens
·
Make data collected by government agencies available to all
agencies
·
Provide a nationwide secure broadband infrastructure
·
Open source software should be widely used
·
Invest 1-2% of national program budgets to establish new
processes and associated e-governance infrastructure
·
Establish an organization, in mission mode, to facilitate
e-governance reforms
·
Establish specialized information technology officers in
state and central ministries
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“People’s access to knowledge can transform India’s potential”
