Heera Education System Bill 2020 [Act] Scheme [Full Form –Higher Education Evaluation and Regulation Authority – Single Education Regulatory Body Bill ]
Quality education will not only revive the status of the nation, but will also enable the educated and trained youth to proceed towards attaining their professional goals. A significant number of schools, colleges, universities and top research academies for higher education are under government monitoring. Two such bodies are All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and University Grants Commission (UGC). The central government was working on the development of a body that will bring these two bodies under one umbrella. The name of this new bill is Higher Education Evaluation and Regulation Authority or HEERA. According to reports, central government is all set to pass this bill and put it to work from March 2019.
Launch details
| Name of the bill | HEERA |
| Full Form | Higher Education Evaluation and Regulation Authority |
| Designed and supervised by | Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) |
| Action plan submission date | April 2018 |
| Official announcement date | June, 2018 |
| Presentation in parliament | September 2018 |
| Estimated time of implementation | March 2019 |
| Announced by | Minister Prakash Javadekar |
| Targeted sector | Higher Education |
Main objectives of the scheme
- Single regulatory body for higher education – AICTE and UGC are governed as per the rules of respective governing bodies. It often becomes difficult to analyze these bodies on the same platform. The main objective behind the creation of HEERA is to combine these bodies.
- Funding according to performance – Central government offers financial assistance to academic institutes. The funding attained by higher educational and research institutes are significant. HEERA will monitor and analyze the progress and performance of these institutes. Based on the progress report, it will release required funding. In short, institutes need to offer results to continue getting the money.
- Monitoring of active projects – Several academic and higher education related projects are designed and implemented by the central government. These are targeted towards the betterment of the overall educational framework. With the implementation of this regulatory body, it will be easy to monitor all ongoing programs easily.
Action plan of the authority
- Development – The overall development and betterment of all educational bodies is the main goal of HRD ministry. The planning committee or the NITI Aayog has also backed this project. But others have their doubts about its successful implementation.
- Minimum educational qualification – Each academic course has some prerequisites, which interested candidates have to meet. The new governing body will fix these minimum levels for all educational programs.
- Advent of HOSHE – The full form of HOSHE is High Order Skills for the Students. This special program will put stress not only to impart knowledge but to ensure that students attain information about the professional industry. Colleges and universities will provide special attention to develop students’ skills. It will render them capable of joining the industry as soon as they pass out of the institute.
- Analyzing quality of education in institutes – The governing body will also give the responsibility to reputed agencies. The task of these firms will be to collect data and generate reports about the quality of education, offered by each institute.
- Special regulations for open and distance courses – The new regulatory body will also design rules for the overall development of distance courses and open universities. The education quality will be increased to offer these students equal platform with those passing out of regular courses.
- Development of NIRF – Regulations will also be set forth to ensure that the overall ranking of NIRF or National Institute Ranking Framework goes up, to compete with international ranking bodies.
- Offering autonomy – HEERA will also analyze the progress report of competent institutes. If it deems fit, these colleges or universities will be awarded with the power of autonomy. They will be able to choose their curriculum and make necessary changes, which will be befitting to bring about development of the institute.
- More study on social science – More studies and researches will be conducted on topics, which are closely associated with social science. Only the research is complete, reforms will be suggested to tackle the issue. It will develop the social scenario of the nation as well. These measures will be targeted towards preventing the disparities in the society.
- Special agreements with other nations – India will also sign a special agreement with other nations. As per this contract, Indian educational institutes will offer opportunities to foreign students to study and take part in researches.
Will it be easy?
As the bill deals with several sensitive educational issues, many are not pinning too high hopes on this bill. Problems have already started brewing within the government departments. For instance, UGC and AICTE are not too happy about the establishment of this body. They have been functioning as per their own rules. A sudden shift will hinder their performance as well as create several confusions.
Another doubt is associated with funding. UGC and AICTE used to receive funding under different heads. The formation of HEERA may pose issues in that sector as well. Apart from this, some think that as it is Modi’s last reigning year, any alteration in the central government may nullify or place hurdles in the path of its approval. The bill will have to face the litmus test. If everything goes well as per estimates, then Indian educational sector will get a massive facelift. How far it will produce positive results, is still anybody’s guess.
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