Shashi Tharoor answers your questions on Google Hangout: Highlights

Shashi Tharoor, The Minister of State for Human Resource Development, answers your questions on a Google Hangout on Indian education. The Hangout is being moderated by NDTV's Sonia Singh. Here are the highlights of what he said:

• Higher education in India is an extremely important issue for the future of our country
• If we can educate the young people it would pay a tremendous democratic dividend
• If we cannot educate people or provide them with vocational skills, it may turn out to be a demographic nightmare
• Reservation is national policy, the constitution provides for affirmative action
• The best way to stop others from fleeing to expand educational capacity in our country
• The hunger for education of international quality is high
• We have tried to make everything as transparent as possible. Both UGC and AICTE are doing as much they can on the web.
• We are expanding infrastructure through the RTE, lot more resources coming in through the RTE that need these kind of resources
• Private schools need to accommodate 25% of students from underprivileged children; classrooms would be much more heterogeneous
  
• National Assessment Survey has been able to demonstrate unlike Pratham's ASER report that at lower levels learning has gone up
• While learning achievements are low, there has been measurable progress
• We are actually now reaching more children in getting them to school
• The problem is keeping children in school. Dropout rates get bad in after class 8 and keeps getting worse
• We are, for example, very conscious of higher levels of girls dropping out - so under RTE, we have provided for girls' toilets in schools
• Can't pretend everything is perfect. But we are aware of the problems and are trying to fix them
• A private school or college has benefited from subsidized opportunities - land, grants, etc
• Four Es in education - Expansion, Equity, Excellence and Employ-ability
• My ministry is pushing for greater interaction between industry and academia
• What is the point of a computer and broadband if there is no electricity