Singh: For reform?

New Delhi, June 2: The President’s address to Parliament on June 4 may outline education reforms as an agenda for the new government despite apprehensions in the human resource development ministry over any systemic overhaul.

Recommendations of two key panels on reforming higher education could find mention in the address despite opposition from the ministry, officials involved in drafting the speech have revealed.

The National Knowledge Commission and the Yash Pal Committee on reforming higher education have suggested an overhaul of existing regulatory mechanisms that monitor institutions and courses.

If the panels find mention in the government’s agenda outlined by President Pratibha Patil, it would suggest determination by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to genuinely reform the regulators, often accused of fostering mediocrity and stifling quality.

The agenda will form the blueprint for the government’s functioning over the next five years.

But the ministry, the sources said, is still attempting to scuttle the inclusion of the two panels’ suggestions in the President’s address. “A frenetic tussle is on between those who want the Pal panel and the knowledge commission included, and those who believe they should be ignored in the President’s speech,” a source said.

“The outcome (of the tussle) could determine who sets the education agenda over the next five years,” the source added.

The ministry under Arjun Singh had steadfastly rejected most recommendations of the knowledge commission, set up by the Prime Minister under technocrat Sam Pitroda, who transformed the telecom sector in the late 1980s.

Days before Kapil Sibal took over, higher education secretary R.P. Agrawal questioned Pal’s interim recommendations in a note to the panel. The final recommendations are expected by July 31.

Agrawal as secretary is a member of the Pal panel which, many bureaucrats in the ministry argue, has recommended lofty, ideal mechanisms almost impossible to establish in reality.

The ministry steered clear of the knowledge commission and the Pal panel while sending its inputs for the President’s address, the sources said.

But the Prime Minister’s Office intervened and asked ministry officials to send details of the recommendations of both panels, suggesting Manmohan was keen to incorporate these in the speech.

Both the knowledge commission and the Pal panel have recommended a new, all-encompassing regulator for higher education that will replace the slew of existing bodies governing different streams of study.

Existing regulators like the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education wield complete control over universities and technical education respectively, a grip they are reluctant to relax.

Accepting the recommendation of the two panels may mean winding up the decades-old regulators, a decision that will hurt beneficiaries of the existing set-up.

The Pal panel has criticised the ministry for interference in the appointments of vice-chancellors, and called for independent selection of candidates. The panel has also recommended transforming Indian Institutes of Technology into full-fledged universities rather than focusing on technical education, a proposal the IITs are uncomfortable with.