VCK MP urges Centre to release AISHE report without delay

CHENNAI: VCK MP D Ravikumar on Tuesday urged the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to take action to release the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report for 2020-21 immediately.

"Data for AISHE report is collected on several parameters such as teachers, students enrollment, programmes, examination results, education finance, infrastructure and indicators of educational development such as institution density, gross enrollment ratio, pupil teacher ratio, gender parity index, etc. These are useful in making informed policy decisions and research for development of the education sector,” said Ravikumar, in a letter written to Dharmendra Padhan.

The AISHE report has been published by the Union government since 2011 without the objective of assessing the state of higher education in the country. Ravikumar said that not just the Union government but every State government considers the report as the basis for planning and taking measures related to higher education.

"Usually the report is released by June every year, but the 2020-21 has not been published so far,” said Ravikumar.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Ravikumar, citing the developments in Kerala, issued a clarion call to protect the higher educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. "What happened today in Kerala might happen in Tamil Nadu tomorrow. We will stay awake and will protect our higher educational institutions,”

said Ravikumar, in a tweet.

It may be noted that neighbouring Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has removed nine vice-chancellors from posts and later stayed by the Kerala High Court.

Ravikumar further said that rightwingers do not like the words "knowledge" and "science" and so they are trying to destroy higher education in the State.