New Delhi: Many recommendations made in the initial National Education Policy, including holding a college administration accountable for any financial irregularity, to prevent the commercialisation of education have been removed in a revised version published by the ministry of education.
The revised version released after the policy was announced has made many significant changes to the original recommendations.
In the first document, it was suggested that 20% of the seats in higher education institutions should be given as free ship and 30% of the seats should be offered under scholarship. In the new document, there is no mention of the percentages. It only says a significant amount of scholarships will be encouraged.
The revised document says institutions will be free to set the fees independently. It also says opportunities will be created for the recovery of expenses on departments in higher educational institutions that need a large outlay.
The first document had suggested strong measures to curb the tendency to make school education a business. It had also suggested putting a cap on unreasonable hike in fees. This part, however, has been removed in the revised document.
It was first stated that the provisions of the Companies Act (Section 8) for an audit of non-profit companies would apply to higher education institutions; the original policy also said it would prevent the practice of administrators, management and sponsors earning revenue from institutions after registering them as being ‘not-for-profit’. But the new document only says that audits and accounts should be similar to that of non-profit organisations.
The first document stated that the governing body would have the power to run the institutions independently without any political or outside interference. Their mention of political interference has been removed in the new document.