HEERA: A proposed diamond of the Education in India

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HEERA

The topic of this post is a General Knowledge topic and can be asked in any of the GDs and interviews and is of relevance to the school going students since they will soon be joining universities. The post discusses HEERA (Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency).

The historical move proposed by our honorable PM – Narendra Modi, led government is to do away with the regulatory bodies like UGC (University grants commission) and AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education). A new regulatory body, HEERA, is proposed in place of these bodies.

This decision was taken in a meeting on educational reform held in the month of March (chaired by PM Mr. Narendra Modi himself). Several such ideas had been proposed earlier too but none could take a solid shape. The key idea is to replace multiple regulatory authorities with a single and streamlined one.

Here are the key changes that HEERA is expected to bring into the education sector in India:

  1. UGC and AICTE currently work as two different bodies focusing on nontechnical and technical education respectively but with changes in course structure and the so called nontechnical courses being made more industry efficient this segregation seems to be redundant and hence need of a single governing body which synchronizes all the institutions especially the course curricula and structure. It will maintain uniformity across the institutions.
  2. A senior government official said that this reform is suggested to eliminate all overlaps in the jurisdiction and also to do away with regulatory provisions that may no longer be relevant. The new body will be short and clean and will outline minimum standards which would focus on outcomes.
  3. Having two bodies leads to excessive and restrictive regulation and hence contributes to the lack of institutional autonomy. HEERA is aimed to put stop to inspector raj and harassment these authorities are often seen following. The new body will also be empowered to take strong penal action as and when necessary.

A committee has been set up which has Niti Ayog CEO Mr. Amitabh Kant and Higher Education Secretary KK Sharma as two of the few members. The committee along with the HRD Ministry is reportedly working on to prepare an outlined blueprint for HEERA.

It is in the lap of time that how soon HEERA comes into existence and how beneficial it proves out to be for the Indian education system.

Please share with us your opinion on this proposed move by Indian Government.

 

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