Kapil Sibal meets MPs across party lines on education reforms

From- TOI

NEW DELHI: Faced with criticism from within his party and UPA allies for his proposed reform bills on higher education, HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday had a second round of interaction with MPs from Congress, NCP, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal to convince them and clear doubts.

Congress MP J D Selam, who spoke on behalf of the SC/ST MPs' forum in the meeting, said, "I have asked the ministry to send original bills to our forum. We would scrutinize the bills and get back to the ministry. The minister has agreed. We should be given more time to study."

Sibal and ministry officials briefed in detail about four bills that are pending in Parliament and the need for their speedy passage. The Educational Tribunals Bill, Unfair Practices Bill, National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions and Foreign Educational Institutions (regulation of entry and operations) Bill are pending.

Two other bills proposed to be introduced are National Academic Depository Bill and Higher Education and Research (HER) Bill. Educational Tribunals Bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha, but is held up in Rajya Sabha after Opposition from Congress MPs. HER Bill that proposes to create a new regulatory body in place of the UGC is likely to be introduced in the Winter session of Parliament.

Sources said, "MPs were told that the proposed legislation is reformist in nature but would not work against the marginal sections as it is fulfills the goal of equity, access and quality." It is believed that while MPs were supportive of the overall reformist agenda many of them felt that equity might suffer with slew of legislations. "We welcome the initiative but we also have concern. The goal of legislations is to increase access and quality. Equity should also be added. There should be focus on reducing the gap between general and disadvantaged sections. Also, there should be proper representation of SC/STs in the proposed tribunal and council," Selam told TOI. Many of the MPs like Rajniti Prasad of RJD, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party and PJ Kurien of Congress were supportive of Sibal's initiative, but stressed on the equity angle.

Last month Sibal's first interaction was attended by Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Navin Jindal, NCP's Supriya Sule and others.