Smriti Irani to discuss Centre's education policies with Northeast education ministers

Agartala: Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani will preside over a meeting of higher education ministers of the Northeast region here on Friday, a state minister on Thursday said.

Tripura Higher Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said the state would demand for increase of the Centre's allocation for improvement of the higher education in the country from two per cent of the GDP to six per cent.

"Only 18 per cent of the population gets higher education in our country, which is much less than many backward countries in the world. We will demand an increase in the allocation in higher education from two per cent of the GDP to six per cent in the meeting of higher education ministers of the North East region tomorrow," Chakraborty told reporters.

Irani held video conferences with the higher education secretaries and officials concerned on Tuesday last regarding the new higher education policies of the Centre before her meeting with the ministers of the region, the Minister said.

Earlier the Union HRD Ministry had a sent a questionnaire containing 33 questions to the states to know the opinion of the respective governments regarding the new higher education policy.

The Union HRD Minister, along with two Union secretaries B S Oberoi and S C Khumtia, would arrive here on Friday and visit NIT-Agartala. The meeting of the higher education ministers of the region would be held at noon, Chakraborty added.