The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is allegedly involving private consultants for policy making while keeping out representatives of faculties of public funded universities, teachers and office bearers of Delhi University (DU) have alleged.
However, a senior MHRD official denied the charge. “It has become a fashion to criticise any progressive step of the MHRD. The ministry has no business promoting private consultants or public consultants; the ministry is only concerned with promoting better higher education in the country. All the allegations are baseless,” the same senior MHRD official told The Sunday Guardian. “The MHRD recently floated a tender for hiring public relations agencies, and you will not believe that the step is facing massive criticism from a section of teachers of public funded universities. The ministry is giving a fair share to all stakeholders in policy-making initiatives and it will be a phoney assumption that experts are only working in public funded universities,” the MHRD official said. However, Rajesh Jha, one of the Executive Council (EC) members of DU, alleged: “Private universities have acquired a greater role in the policy making process of the MHRD and, comparatively, the participation of public funded universities has been reduced to nearly zero. In order to provide benefits to private universities, the MHRD is ignoring the expertise of public funded universities in policy making.Representative bodies such as the academic council and executive councils of public funded universities have no decision-making powers as we have not been consulted in several committees constituted by the ministry. During my two-year term in DUTA (Delhi University Teachers’ Association), the MHRD did not call even once for any representation.” Abha Dev Habib, a former EC member of DU, said: “The MHRD has set the ball rolling for a new national education policy, but there is no public debate at the behest of the ministry. Major changes are being initiated without actually consulting professionals from public funded universities.”