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Corruption, corruption and corruption! It is corruption everywhere in the so-called professional bodies like AICTE and UGC in the country. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in a sensational revelation, has unearthed the deep-routed corruption prevailing in the country’s higher education system.
The gravity of the issue can be gauged from the fact that no less an authority than the AICTE Chairman RA Yadav, Adviser HC Rai, Deputy Director Robinder Randhava and a Regional Director Sriom Dalal have fallen in the CBI net on a complaint by the owner of an engineering college in Faridabad in Haryana. The CBI has arrested a Member-Secretary of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) K Narayana Rao and a middleman SB Subba Rao for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs.5 lakh from the owner of an engineering college in Andhra Pradesh.
This incident should be an eye-opener to one and all about what is happening in the higher education in the system in the country.
In this connection, I will mention one incident which I have come across. The AICTE has accorded permission to 272 pharmacy colleges in Andhra Pradesh alone to start pharmacy education during the last couple of years. As per norms, all these institutions should be headed by a Principal whose qualification should be M.Pharm plus Ph.D plus 15 years experience. The fact is that such a large number of people with this qualification is simply not available in the country. Then how these institutions received sanction is anybody’s guess.
I am sure, the government was fully aware of what is going on in these professional bodies. It might not be for any other reason that the Prof Yash Pal committee, set up to suggest measures for restructuring higher education in the country, has concurred with the National Knowledge Commission in proposing a single regulator for governing all streams of higher education in the country.
Presently, the UGC regulates universities, AICTE manages technical education, the Medical Council of India governs medical courses and the Dental Council of India controls dentistry. The Nursing Council of India is in charge of nursing and the Pharmacy Council of India regulates pharmacy courses.
"We have said there should be a National Commission for Higher Education and Research which will be an apex body. UGC, AICTE and other councils will be scrapped," a member of the Yash Pal committee said. The commission will be a constitutional body like Election Commission and the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India will select the chairman and the members.
It is time the government understands the gravity of the situation prevailing in the higher education system in the country and act. Act immediately, scrap all these white elephants which are neck-deep in corruption.
