Public debate needed for HECI draft legislation, says JNUTA
New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) on Monday organised an open house session to discuss the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) draft legislation, placed in the public domain by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development for public opinion.
The Association demanded that the Ministry give more time for public response on the proposal, which is designed to bring such sweeping changes that will impact a large number of students and teachers as well as the future of the country.
JNU faculty members were of the view that while the proposed legislation aims at creating a new mega-institutional structure in the form of a regulating authority in the field of higher education, it fails to identify the problems with the existing institutional structure – the University Grants Commission (UGC).
In a statement, JNUTA said that the draft legislation is "based on the rationale of the changing needs of education, but does not articulate what these needs are."
"There was a unanimous feeling that there appears to be a lack of inclination to improve the existing UGC and a hurried attempt to move to an alternative institutional structure.
"The new draft legislation makes no value addition to the existing UGC Act of 1956 and, in fact, is a step backwards as it over-emphasises on monitoring. Apart from its function of the distribution of grants, the UGC Act had specific provisions for wide consultations with the universities.
"Further, in its own bodies, including the advisory body, more representation was given to the academic community," the statement said.
Sudhir K Suthar, secretary, JNUTA, said, "The proposed Act will result in centralising the function of grant distribution in the hands of the Ministry. It also does away with the consultative procedures that were in place under the existing Act.
"The new institution is a move towards extreme centralisation of powers with the MHRD, and will destroy the existing institutional
flexibility that allows for accommodation of the diversity of the federal educational structure of India."
He added that the proposed structure of the HECI is bureaucratic and rigid, with no provisions for the representation of socially, economically and regionally marginalized sections.
