New Delhi: The Union human resource development (HRD) ministry is likely to introduce two bills in the budget session of Parliament beginning Monday. While the first aims to digitize all academic credentials, the second will create a statutory body for the distance education sector.
The academic depository will dematerialize academic records of all students leaving school boards, colleges and universities and create a central resource to curb frauds and forgery. It will help companies do background screening of aspiring or existing employees, two government officials familiar with the development said.
Both the new education bills have a common digital link. The second bill will regulate distance education, which is facing a trust deficit in a regulatory vacuum, but can help India improve its higher education enrolment.
India has at least 14 open universities and 240 other distance education directorates in existing universities. Earlier, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) was dealing with distance education regulation. The power was later transferred to the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a temporary measure.
Both bills have a common digital link, a pet theme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first official said, requesting anonymity.
Both proposals were floated by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, but did not lead to legislation.
The first official said the ministry will take help from the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and Central Depository Securities Ltd (CDSL) for the academic depository. Nearly a million schools, over 38,000 colleges and over 650 universities will ultimately be covered under the initiative, but the ministry may start the process with central universities and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The official, however, said private agencies will not be empanelled to do the job as “safety of private information” of people is a key issue.
“Authentication of education credentials is a key challenge while seeking jobs, applying for higher studies and at times, even during elections,” a second official said. Authentication will not be a problem in a demat form, the official said, adding the proposal has been pending for since 2011.
In 2011, the Delhi university unearthed a racket in fake certificates. In 2012, IITs were faced with a similar situation after several hundred applicants submitted fake certificates to gain the benefits of reservation for other backward classes.
According to a 2014 report by background screening company First Advantage, 10% of all applications in sectors like travel, hospitality and retail had discrepancies. Of all education-related discrepancies, 66% comprise of fake documents, the report said.
The second official said legislation related to distance education will create a statutory council such as the UGC. It will lay down standards for offering higher education programmes and prescribe facilities, staffing patterns and staff qualifications and enforce the same. It will also supervise online education, a thrust area for the central government. The council will grant recognition to higher education programmes offered through distance education system within the country or outside by Indian institutes.
“Funding, monitoring, quality improvement, setting guidelines will be taken care of by this council. Currently, more than 20% of students pursuing higher education are enrolled in distance mode; so, proper quality control is required,” the second official said.
According to C.R.K. Murthy, a professor at IGNOU, the establishment of a distance education regulator which can assure quality, changing the way departments often see distance education merely as a cash cow and special attention on private universities churning out “cheap degrees” will be good for the sector.
