The National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NMEICT),which was initiated nearly five years ago with an aim to use technology to provide quality education to students in higher education sector across the country,seems to be providing the bulk of its funds to IITs and the engineering sector,ignoring crucial Humanities courses. The disproportionate focus on engineering education has already been noticed by the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. While almost Rs 600 crore has been given away under NMEICT towards engineering education since 2009,less than Rs 100 crore has been shared by other disciplines. According to data from the All India Higher Education Survey 2012,of the total number of students enrolled in higher education courses in India,47 per cent are enrolled in Arts,compared with 16 per cent in engineering and technology,13 per cent in the Commerce stream and 11 per cent in Science courses. Incidentally,the NMEICT is largely shaped and implemented by those with an IIT/engineering background. Engineering is traditionally considered a strong suit as far as Indians are concerned. In the engineering stream,about Rs 100 crore went to the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning,about Rs 200 crore to the Virtual Labs project and Rs 200 crore to IIT Bombays Talk to a Teacher programme,under which 10,000 engineering college teachers have been trained so far. Another Rs 22 crore is headed to set up a Virtual Technical University which IIT Madras is likely to work on. Compare this with the funding for non-engineering courses. While about Rs 84 crore is routed through the University Grants Commission for all other non-engineering courses,another Rs 12 crore has gone to the UGCs Centre for Educational Communication. Sources in the HRD ministry said that while no one questions the use of funds towards engineering education,there is not a commensurate interest or focus on non-engineering courses,which actually enrol a massive number of students. Incidentally,the HRD ministry has over the past few years talked extensively about the need to encourage liberal arts and humanities and set up dedicated liberated arts varsities. A top government official associated closely with NMECIT,however,said there is no bias towards engineering. The NMEICT funding is open to all disciplines. It may be true that so far,funding has gone to several engineering and science projects,but that is also because there was ongoing work already in these disciplines and so those projects took off quickly. If experts in humanities and other disciplines come together for similar projects,they will also get funding. It entirely depends on project proposals that come to the mission,the official said.
