- Only 20 recruitments in ICTE in six years
- Congress said – new bill will increase government control over education
- Only 4.06% of GDP spent on education, far behind the target
New Delhi. The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the higher education system of the country has raised a big question. With the revelation of huge number of vacant posts in UGC and AICTE, Congress has cornered the government and alleged that in such a situation, the Developed India Education Foundation Bill-2025 will further centralize higher education and weaken the autonomy of the institutions. The party said that on one hand the regulatory bodies are facing staff crisis, while on the other hand the government is imposing major changes in the education structure without consulting the states, which is worrying for both the federal system and academic freedom.
The report of the Departmental Standing Committee of Parliament has revealed that major regulatory institutions like University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) are facing huge staff crunch. According to the report, more than 67 percent of non-academic posts are vacant in UGC, while only 20 recruitments have been made in AICTE on a regular basis in the last six years.
The committee has warned that due to such a large number of posts remaining vacant, the functioning of these institutions is being directly affected. The UGC, which oversees thousands of universities across the country and oversees the grant process, is no longer able to discharge its statutory responsibilities to its full potential. At the same time, due to vacancy of 63.6 percent posts of middle and senior level in AICTE, it is feared that the regulation of more than 10,000 technical institutes will be affected. The report also termed the shortage of faculty in central universities and other centrally funded institutions as a serious issue. Although thousands of posts were filled between 2022 and 2025, a large number of teacher posts are still vacant. The committee has recommended creating a centralized and regularly updated vacancy register for all institutions.
The situation on the financial front is also said to be worrying. Total government expenditure on education in 2022-23 stood at 4.06 percent of GDP, which is much lower than the 6 percent target of the National Education Policy 2020. Apart from this, the actual expenditure of the department in 2024-25 was about Rs 4,500 crore less than the budget estimate, while a huge decline of 73.9 percent was recorded in capital expenditure. Meanwhile, the political conflict has intensified regarding the Developed India Education Foundation Bill-2025 brought by the Central Government. The Bill proposes to subsume the functions of the UGC, AICTE and the National Council for Teacher Education into a new integrated regulatory regime.
Congress has expressed strong opposition to this proposal. Party leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that the bill is a step towards centralizing the education system and reducing the autonomy of academic institutions. He says that this bill has been brought without consultation with the states, which is against the federal structure.
Releasing the party’s official letter, Congress General Secretary (Communications) and MP Jairam Ramesh said that the party has 7 objections to the current form of this bill. Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution, but no consultation was done with the state governments in the drafting of this bill. This is a violation of the federal structure.
The letter said that there is no provision for a grant giving council in the bill, whereas it was clearly mentioned in the National Education Policy 2020. With this, the power to give grants will move out of the academic institutions and into the hands of the ministry. This will lead to centralization of higher education and academic freedom will be affected.
Jairam Ramesh said that in the new system, the administration of UGC, AICTE and NCTE will now be in the hands of bureaucrats instead of academics. With this, education will be conducted from the academic point of view and not from the administrative point of view.
Ramesh said that this bill can also affect the institutions of national importance (IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs, IISERs), which have remained autonomous till now. If this bill is implemented, the academic and institutional independence of these institutions may be affected. Amidst the growing controversy over the committee report and the bill, pressure has increased on the government regarding reforms in the higher education sector and better utilization of resources.
Comments are closed.