A NASSCOM report said 75 pc of engg students are unemployable. Key Performance Indicators were introduced for technical education. ATKT for Class X was upheld. The report on fees in private schools and first online CAT for IIMs are highlights of the year

The year 2009 will definitely go down in the history of field of education as one of upheavals. Waking up to the mess created by its own inaction, the government initiated a slew of corrective measures during the year.

The rot in the higher education is evident even if one goes through news reports of the year. University Grants Commission's (UGC) actions came under suspicion over dubious permission to deemed universities, while chairman and member secretary of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) landed in the CBI net for false approvals to management institutes.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM)'s shocking report saying 75 per cent of engineering students are unemployable, speaks volumes of the decay set even in the professional education, leave alone the traditional one.

On this backdrop, the department of higher and technical education headed by principal secretary J S Saharia, set itself on course correction, both on academic and administrative fronts. In a major decision, which invited brickbats and bouquets, the selection process of vice chancellors was thrown open through public advertisements. As a result, the University of Pune (UoP) received 125 applications, the greatest number of aspirants ever for the post of V-C. Another three universities also received a tremendous response for the V-C post.

The department changed norms for selection of members of authority bodies of universities, making PhD degree compulsory for teacher members. To loosen the grip of non-academic elements in the functioning of the varsity, some strict norms were introduced for management representatives too.

On the academic side, quality and employability of higher education remain a grave concern. Taking cognisance of deterioration in higher education hastened by its withdrawal from the field, the government introduced a slew of corrective steps. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for technical education is a crucial part of this exercise. Quality and employability of engineering education will be the key focus of the KPIs. Traditional colleges too will have similar norms in the near future.

School education too had its share of unconventional decisions. Ripples of views of human resources department minister Kapil Sibal on scrapping Class X were felt across the nation. The then school minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil made drastic moves, some of which even boomeranged. The court upheld Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) for Class X, but scuttled attempts to equalise Class X marks of CBSE and SSC students. The controversial report of committee on fees in private schools and non-starter committee on pre-primary divisions will also be remembered with year 2009.

 Maiden online Common Admission Test (CAT) for Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and chaos due to technical glitches will also have its mark on the education calendar of 2009.