Towards Complete Control over Higher Education - Vijender Sharma

THE draft of National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) Bill, 2010 uploaded by the ministry of human resource development, in February, on its website (http://www.education.nic.in/) received strong criticism and opposition from students, academia, people’s representatives and several states including West Bengal and Kerala. This draft bill, therefore, has been revised and certain vital changes have been made. This revised bill, re-titled as Higher Education and Research (HER), Bill, 2010, is now being circulated selectively for seeking opinion while the original draft bill still continues to be on its website.

In this article, the provisions of two draft bills, the NCHER bill and HER bill, are being compared section by section. . . .

REJECT EVEN THE REVISED BILL
The draft HER bill, which is the revised version of the draft NCHER bill, does not respond to any of the concerns of the stakeholders. It undermines the autonomy of higher educational institutions and creates an all powerful commission for the centralisation of all aspects related to higher education. It negates the role of state governments and academia in strengthening the higher education system in their respective areas, states and country. It undermines the powers of the parliament, state legislatures and representatives of the people at large to opine and decide the education policy and administration of institutions of higher education in India.
The commission or NCHER cannot be most competent for “renovation and rejuvenation” of higher education and best and only brains to shape the future of higher education in the country. Corporate culture has been proposed for funding of institutions of higher education. If this all powerful commission or the corporation directs the universities to look towards market for its general funds, then what would happen to our higher education system?
The need is to make the bodies like the UGC, AICTE, MCI, etc., which are proposed to be subsumed in the NCHER, function democratically and efficiently, eradicate corruption prevalent in them, make them accountable to the people and serve the cause of education. The proposal to establish NCHER reflects the tendency of the central government towards centralisation of higher education and marginalisation of states. It will prove to be retrograde for the development of higher education and research in India. Therefore, even the revised higher education and research bill should be rejected.