New Delhi: In order to meet its high ambitions of allowing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 16% by the end of 11th five-year plan, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is up with its new team to work upon a resolution to meet the gap formed due to an acute shortage of teaching staff in various schools.

The new team is set to work upon arriving at an incentive plan, which shall aim at providing better wages and make them earn a greater societal respect.

The new team, headed by Mr. Sanjay Dhande, Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), consists of Prof.K.K. Aggarwal, former Vice Chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU); V Kanan, pro Vice-Chancellor of Hyderabad University, and Chiranjib Sen of IIM Ahmedabad.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) secretary R. K. Chauhan will be presiding as the member secretary of the team.

It will take them not more than a month to give a provisional report about the scheme of things.

UGC chairperson Sukhdeo Thorat, concerned about the huge step taken to expand the arena of higher education in the country, has spread the word in the Parliament’s consultative committee about the development of the team, as a severe attempt to deal with faculty shortage.

“With the current GER lying between 7 to 8 per cent Kapil Sibal has darted to roll up the figure to 16% by the end of the 11th five-year plan while the year 2016-17 soars even higher to touch the 30% mark,” said a source.

Dhande, realizing the pitfalls afflicting the higher education for a long time said that, “It is not possible to quantify the productivity of the teachers like that in a manufacturing unit. We are collecting the data for further assessment.”

Talking about incentives, Dhande said that, “Respect is the first preference set for the faculty to attract them towards the institution of education, then comes the remuneration part. We need to create a broad strategy to arrive at a feasible solution to the problem of the acute shortage. It is only then that the people will find this as a lucrative career option as well.”