Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- India will introduce by March legislation to increase the quality and reach of higher education, Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal said today.

The government will seek to create an independent accreditation agency that will set benchmarks for all universities and colleges in the country, Sibal said. It will also draw up laws to govern the entry of foreign educational institutions and a regulator for higher education, he said. “The whole structural framework is going to change,” the minister said.

India is ranked 102 out of 129 countries, immediately below Kenya and Nicaragua, in UNESCO’s 2009 Education for All Development Index that scores nations on the spread, gender balance and quality of primary education and adult literacy.

Ministers say they are spending more on teaching and building new schools, colleges and universities to enable a greater proportion of India’s hundreds of millions of students to obtain an internationally competitive education.

Parliament in August approved legislation to provide compulsory and free education for all children aged six to 14.

The key challenge for the government as it prepares its reforms is to achieve a “critical mass” of students completing secondary education and going to university, Sibal said.

Sibal said that while about 220 million children attend school, only 12.4 percent further their education at a college. India wants to raise this level to 30 percent by 2020, he said. Only 12 percent of India’s 509 million young employed people have the right skills, the minister added.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 9, 2009 07:41 EST