Making out a strong case for deregulation of education, the Prime Minister appointed National Knowledge Commission today warned of an impending crisis in the sector that remained in "command and control" for long.

"I believe there is a crisis...Government is not capable of solving all our educational challenges," National Knowledge Commission (NKC) Chairman Sam Pitroda said at a FICCI seminar.

Lashing out at the old models, Pitroda said here people want to introduce more and more controls - whether it is in regard to selection of Vice Chancellors or fee structure.

"Under the disguise of old models, why do we need Ministers and Prime Minister to select Vice Chancellors. Why can't VCs themselves select VCs," the NKC Chairman asked.

The UPA government has provided the highest ever 65 billion dollars outlays for education in the five year plan.

"That speaks volume for the commitment to education," Pitroda said, adding however, the money alone was not enough to resolve the human resource crisis.

"Ninety-five per cent of our educational institutions are in bad shape. We have severe crisis in education," he said.

For all the accolades to some of the country's educational institutions including much-touted IITs and IIMs, India did not find a single entry in the list of World's top 500 universities and colleges.

"When I was looking at this list I found the Indian Institute of Science (top Indian entry) at 613th position," Pitroda said. While the government is now opening six to seven more IITs why did the country have seven IITs for 50 years, he asked.

Pitroda saw a similar crisis even for the US education system which is too expensive to provide access to all. "With a tuition fee of 50,000 dollars per annum, you cannot expect to

Source: outlookindia.com