Education: Infrastructure and policy of Haryana | HPSC Preparation: All subjects - HPSC (Haryana) PDF Download

Education Disparity in Haryana

• Despite being one of the economically developed states in India, Haryana has a significant education disparity. About one-third of the population in Haryana is illiterate, and the proportion of the population with education decreases steeply from the primary level towards higher levels of education.
• The literacy rate in Haryana has increased to 76.64% according to the 2011 population census, with male literacy standing at 85.38% and female literacy at 66.67%. In 2001, the literacy rate in Haryana was 67.91%, with male and female literacy at 78.49% and 55.73% respectively. 
• Gurgaon city had the highest literacy rate in Haryana in 2013 at 86.30%, followed by Panchkula at 81.9% and Ambala at 81.7%. As of 2012, Rewari district had the highest literacy rate in Haryana at 74%, which is higher than the national average of 59.5%, with male literacy at 79% and female literacy at 67%.
• The progress of education in Haryana has not been as expected, and there is a significant gap in educational levels between different areas of the state. Urban areas have better educational attainment compared to rural areas, and there is a notable variation in higher education at the district level. 
• As for graduate and above education, Gurgaon has the highest attainment rate at 20.36 percent, followed by Panchkula at 17.90 percent and Faridabad at 15.04 percent. On the other hand, Mewat district has the lowest attainment rate at 1.59 percent, followed by Fatehabad at 4.59 percent and Palwal at 4.64 percent.

Infrastructure

• Department of Elementary Education, Haryana: The Government of Haryana in India has a department called the Department of Elementary Education, which is responsible for overseeing school education across the state of Haryana.
• Director of Secondary Education, Haryana: The Director of Secondary Education in Haryana is a government unit responsible for overseeing the provision of school education across the state of Haryana, India.
• Department of Higher Education, Haryana: This statement is not correct as the Department of Higher Education would not be responsible for school education. Instead, the Department of Higher Education in Haryana would focus on overseeing the universities and higher education institutions in the state. A possible paraphrase could be: The Department of Higher Education in Haryana is responsible for overseeing the higher education institutions and universities in the state of Haryana under the Government of Haryana.
• Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonipat: The Rajiv Gandhi Education City located in Sonipat, Haryana, India, is an area designated for hosting multiple educational institutions such as universities, medical colleges and engineering colleges. The development is planned to occupy 5,000 acres of land and the foundation stones were laid in June 2012. As of October 2015, the project remained unfinished.
• Schools: The Haryana Board of School Education was founded in September 1969 and relocated to Bhiwani in 1981. It organizes public examinations for middle, matriculation, and senior secondary levels twice annually, with more than seven lakh candidates appearing in the annual exams in February and March and 150,000 in supplementary exams every November. The board also administers exams for the Haryana Open School at senior and senior secondary levels twice a year. The state government of Haryana provides free education to women up to the bachelor's degree level. There were almost 20,000 schools in Haryana during the academic year 2015-2016, including 10,100 state government schools comprising 36 Aarohi Schools, 11 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, 21 Model Sanskriti Schools, 8744 government primary schools, 3386 government middle schools, 1284 government high schools, and 1967 government senior secondary schools. The remaining schools comprised 7,635 private schools (200 aided, 6612 recognized unaided, and 821 unrecognized unaided private schools.) and several hundred other central government and private schools such as Kendriya Vidyalaya, Indian Army Public Schools, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, and DAV schools affiliated with the central government's CBSE and ICSE school boards.
• Universities and higher education: Hisar boasts three universities: Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, which is the largest agricultural university in Asia, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, and Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences. In addition, there are several national research centers, such as the National Research Centre on Equines, Central Sheep Breeding Farm, National Institute on Pig Breeding and Research, Northern Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, and Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB). There are also more than 20 colleges in the area, including Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha. On 27 February 2016, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced plans to set up a National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) in Kurukshetra to provide computer training to youth, and a Software Technology Park of India (STPI) would be established in Panchkula’s existing HSIIDC IT Park in Sector 23. In schools, Hindi and English are mandatory languages, while Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Urdu are optional languages.

Policies and schemes

• The Haryana Education Department provides various educational schemes, programmes, grants, bursaries, financial awards, loans, scholarships, fellowships, and skill development opportunities for students in different education sectors such as School Education & Literacy, Elementary Education, Secondary Education, Higher Education, Adult Education, Tribal Education, Technical and Medical Education and Vocational Studies.
• Special assistance is provided to students belonging to Scheduled Caste(SC) and Scheduled Tribe(ST), Other Backward Classes(OBC) and Socially, Educationally Backward Classes(SEBC), Minority Category and below poverty line(BPL), Rural areas, Disabled/Physically Handicapped (PH) students.
• The benefits are available to undergraduate (UG) and post-graduation (PG), Ph.D. students studying in class 09th standard, 10th standard, 11th standard, 12th standard, college and university students, general category students, researchers, and top Science students.
• The benefits include Interest Subsidy (CSIS) on Education Loan, Scholarship/Cash/Incentive/Awards, various vocational and technical training opportunities, educational assistance, facilities and more.