New Delhi : Reform in education in the country is next on the agenda of the Modi government, which now plans to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with one higher education regulator.
According to a report in the ET, this new institution has tentatively been named Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA), which literally translates to ‘diamond’ in Hindi.
This move will eliminate all overlaps in jurisdiction and also do away with regulatory provisions that may no longer be relevant, an official told.
Experts on the subject and several committees including the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission of the UPA era and the Hari Gautam Committee set up by this government have been advocating such a regulator for long.
However, the proposal which had been put on the backburner so far got a fresh lease of life following a meeting on education in March chaired by the Prime Minister.
The Human Resource Development ministry and NITI Aayog are already working out the legislation for the new institution, HEERA. A committee of members comprising NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, and higher education secretary KK Sharma, among others, is working on the detailed blueprint.
The new body will be empowered to take strong penal action when necessary. Since it might take a while before existing Acts on AICTE and UGC are repealed and legislation for the new regulator are finalized, amendments to existing laws may be considered as an interim measure.
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