HRD ministry arrogant: BJP

He was speaking at a one-day seminar on ‘Reforms in Higher Education and Public Participation,’ organised by the Karnataka State Higher Education Council.

“On seeing the way the government initiated reforms, I was impressed with Kapil Sibal,” said Javadekar. “However, when we analysed the bills, we realised that there was no holistic vision in any of them”.

He expressed disappointment that the nation was not discussing the contents of the four educational bills on curbing unfair practices in higher education, mandatory accreditation, educational tribunals and foreign universities. “I find that the more we put things on a website, the less that people discuss these issues,” he said.

Javadekar also slammed Sibal for not involving stakeholders in discussing the various reforms.

"When the Parliamentary committee asked the HRD Ministry if they had a dialogue with State governments, the Ministry replied that the issue was discussed in the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE),” he said.

“But CABE is a body of school education ministers, not higher education ministers,” said Javadekar.  He said that there were three clear trends in higher education as per these laws. Firstly, there is a move to centralise power in the Union government, violating the federalism principle.

Secondly, there is a move to commercialise education under the guise of disclosure norms, he said. Lastly, the setting up of educational tribunals is only a means of bureaucratisation of the education system.

Higher Education Minister V S Acharya said that Central apex bodies such as All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) were yet to release the entire seat matrix for the upcoming CET counselling.

“There is nobody to monitor the functioning of these agencies. When it comes to this, nobody is taking any steps,” he added.