Medical education under NCHER draws flak

It is proposed that that a new national body by the name of National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) be created as an overarching body to supervise higher education.

“All education should be under the purview of the NCHER. The revised draft Bill envisages a federal structure of the proposed NCHER. We will ask the government to bring medical, legal and agricultural education under its purview,” said N R Madhava Menon, a member of the task force.

The moot point
The proposal has run into rough weather though. The moot point is the inclusion of medical education under the ambit of NCHER.

Vijay Khaira, AICC member and national convener of the AICC (doctors' cell), in a missive sent to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, stated that HRD Ministry's proposal to take away medical education away from the Medical council of India is baseless.

Khaira averred that the health care system is an integral part of the Health Ministry and without the latter, medical education is incomplete.

He added that just because a few members of the medical council were found to be corrupt, one cannot categorize the entire department as corrupt. Khaira questioned how the HRD ministry would ensure that all members of NCHER are honest.

“Health is too technical an issue. The education ministry is working on its separate overarching body and we are working on ours,” Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

“So, there are two separate overarching bodies for health and general education being set up by their respective ministries,” added the minister.

Decision rests with government
Meanwhile, HRD minister Kapil Sibal clarified that the final decision regarding inclusion of medical education under NCHER will not be taken by his ministry single-handedly.

"The decision will be of the government at the highest level," he stated.

“The structure of the NCHER will be decided by the government of India and not by the education and health ministries,” the HRD minister further said.

Not only the Union Health Ministry is against the inclusion of medical education under NCHER, the Bar Council of India has also opposed the idea of transferring legal education to the proposed regulatory body.

Inclusion of agriculture education, a state subject, under NCHER’s ambit is likely to be another contentious issue.