The Government of India is planning to replace the World Bank Assisted ‘Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP)’ with a new programme called ‘Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE)’ project for improving the Technical Education system in India.
- The TEQIP programme is slated to come to an end by March, 2021.
TEQIP Programme
It is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Department (now Ministry of Education), Government of India assisted by the World Bank. It was launched in December 2002.
- Funding for TEQIP is from the International Development Association (IDA) – World Bank’s concessionary lending arm with a maturity of 25 years, including a 5-year grace period.
Objective
- To improve the quality of education in the technical institutions of India.
- To improve quality and equity in engineering institutions with focus on low income states.
Key points
- It is a project to take Graduates from elite institutions (such as IITs) to rural and remote engineering colleges in poorer States for teaching.
- At present it is in the 3rd phase of Implementation (TEQIP-III), which was started in 2017.
Measures under TEQIP include
- Institution based – Accreditation of courses through the National Board of Accreditation, improving the processes. Digital initiatives, securing autonomy for the colleges.
- Student based – Improving quality of teaching, revision of syllabus, industry interaction, compulsory internships for students, training students in industry-relevant skills.
MERITE Project
- Similar to TEQIP, MERITE Project also aims to improve technical education in India.
- It is still in conceptual stage & has not yet received Cabinet approval.
- It will be implemented in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommendations.
Recent Related News:
i.On June 28, 2020, World Bank (WB) approved loan of $ 500 million (about Rs 3,700 crore) under ‘Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS)’project to improve the quality and governance of school education across six states (Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan) in India.
About World Bank:
World Bank Group consists of 5 Organizations (5 Institutions, One Group).
- They are International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) & International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
- IBRD & IDA together make up the World Bank.
