RSS-backed body pitches for greater autonomy to higher education institutions

New Delhi: At a time when Human Resource Development Ministry is being accused of trying to tighten its control over higher education institutions, an RSS-backed body has slammed the present system as one breeding "inefficiency and corruption" and pitched for "latitude" to such institutes to craft their own academic programmes.

"Our regulatory system is complex and confusing. It breeds inefficiency and corruption while stifling initiative and experimentation. It should give way for a facilitative and accommodative system which stresses on objectivity, compliance, transparency and disclosure," the Hindu Education Board has told the HRD Ministry.

The HRD Ministry is holding consultations for formulating the new education policy. It said the government should do away with the affiliation system as it dissuades colleges from innovating and "encourages non-serious players to enter 'education market'" as the system has rendered universities as mere controller of examinations.

"In its place, we should rather have a system where educational institutions have the latitude to craft their own academic programmes, develop appropriate curricula and also grant degrees," the Board said. This, it said, must be coupled with the setting up of a robust accreditation system run by professional bodies where accreditation occurs at the level of individual academic programmes rather than at institutional level.

The Board's views on regulatory mechanism and its suggestion that the educational institutes be given more autonomy may be welcomed by many, especially in the academia. The views of the Board were communicated to the Ministry barely weeks after the Hindutva body held a conference, which was attended by HRD Minister Smriti Irani and her ministerial colleagues where RSS General Secretary Krishna Gopal had pitched for an overhaul of the education system with assimilation of Hindu thoughts.

Among its more debatable demands are that Ayurveda, Siddha and other indigenous medical systems be included in an "integrated syllabus" for medicine. It has also called for major changes in all fields of higher studies, ranging from social sciences to humanities, medicine and science and technology, besides introduction of value education so these can become a "differentiator" between "Bhartiya" and other education systems