Education bills sidelined due to chaos in the parliament winter session

Education bills and key legislative measures have been swept under the rug due to the disruptive politics being played out in the Parliament. On the other hand, a mere four days remain before the winter session of the parliament closes. Despite that, Human Resource Development Minister M M Pallam Raju remains optimistic.

A few days before Thursday November 22, 2012, when the winter session commenced, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor announced that there were 20 bills – 11 in higher education and 9 concerning schools – for the Parliament to debate over. Out of those, only three, apart from a bill on central universities, have been chosen for this session and not one of those three bills has been discussed despite repeated listing.

The minister confirms that for the time being the bills are being listed on a daily basis but before any discussion can begin, the house is disrupted with other matters. In this session, the three education bills listed are – a bill to create an educational tribunal, a bill to restrict and punish any educational malpractice and finally a bill to establish a nodal accreditation authority.

The bill for the educational tribunal, would like to set up committees or tribunals at both the national and state level to accelerate the time it takes to receive a verdict regarding an educational issue or matter. The bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha, however, the verdict from the upper houses is pending as the government does not have the majority there.

NARA, or the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutes bill affords the government a chance to set up a mandatory accreditation body for all higher education institutions. This body will help enforce accreditation amongst institutions and also regulate any malpractice taking place in the education sector. Despite being listed repeatedly, the bill has not been passed by the Lok Sabha.

The third bill in the lineup is the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill, 2010. Like its name, the bill will seek to prohibit any unfair or fraudulent activity in the medical and technical arena’s, specifically. This includes activities like charging extra fees, donations and suspicious admission processes. The bill is yet to be discussed.

In what seems like a small concession to the education sector a bill was listed for introduction amidst the chaos of a session on Monday, November 26, 2012. This bill - The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2012 allows for two central universities to be set up in Bihar.

The Government defended itself in the sessions stating that the focus for the Congress’ United Progressive Alliance was to push major economic bills as the country’s economy was a vital matter to be discussed. This effectively swept the education bills out of the way.

Each week of the session had its issues and its own instigators. The first two weeks saw the Parliament debate the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in retail. The third week had the house busy dealing with a bill on the quota for promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes, an issue hotly debated by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

M M Pallam Raju, who replaced Kapil Sibal in this year’s cabinet reshuffle on October 28, 2012, raised the matter, urging the participants to pass the bills, specifically those on the educational tribunal and the accreditation authority.  Quick to counter, a member of BJP stated that the bills were too controversial to pass and further discussion must take place before any decision was made.

The Ministry for Human Resource and Development claim that all 20 bills are extremely important but with the government busy with other matters, they have no choice but to wait. However, education in India seems to be in a sorry state. M. M Pallam Raju in addressing the Rajya Sabha, informed the house of the backward state of universities in the country. He pointed out that the University Grants Commission had recently reviewed over 53 out of 154 universities and found only 5 to be acceptable.  

However, education bills continue to be sidelined, some of them not even being listed. This is includes the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill that aims to control the entry and operation of foreign institutions in the country.

Source: IANS