Union Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal today said private educational institutions would have to play a key role to achieve the target of 30 per cent enrolment in higher education by 2020 at national level.

“I have set a target of 30 per cent enrolment in higher education institutions by 2020-end. Government-run schools and colleges alone cannot do it. If we have to achieve this target, private educational institutions will have to play an important role,” he told a function here.

When he took over the HRD ministry, the enrolment ratio was only 12 per cent and today it had increased to around 19 per cent, Sibal said.

“The difference between a developed nation and a developing nation is not the GDP, the difference is not a 14 trillion dollar economy versus a two trillion dollar economy, the difference is the number of children going to higher education institutions,” he said.

“The wealth of a nation is produced in universities where students develop ideas which become intellectual property,” the minister said.

“The investors later make pilot projects, services and other products from these ideas which are sold in the market,” he said.

To increase the enrolment ratio in higher education institutions, the focus had to be on reducing the drop out rate from schools, Sibal said.

“When we will have maximum number of students passing out from schools, the enrolment ratio will increase. We have set a target of 100 per cent retention in schools by 2020,” he said.

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