Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that teacher’s grievances should be covered by the Regulatory Commission on priority, especially in terms of proper recruitment (eligibility and subject specialization), disbursement of proper salary and other benefits as per University Grants Commission (UGC) norms. He was presiding over the workshop of H.P. Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission here today.He said that Himachal Pradesh was the first State in the country to set up a regulatory body for all private institutions imparting higher education above senior secondary level, which had helped improving the standards of education, ensuring transparency, academic regulations and information on approved courses/fee on the public domain online.Shri Virbhadra Singh said that besides exercising a strict control over the private educational institutions, the commission had ensured the merit based admissions in all private universities giving justice to the students and the best part was that the institutions were now following a uniform academic calendar as per the UGC norms.
The Government's decision to encourage more alternative higher education providers had deliberately introduced more risk into the system, he said. “ We need to protect this sector because we have high National reputation in terms of literacy and quality education and if something goes wrong, it would become extraordinarily difficult to regain the reputation”, he said. The Government was more concerned to nail the growing unregulated sector of higher education that might be offering insufficient provision to students and could damage states reputation, which was of a leading provider of higher education, he said.He added that special measures should be taken to enroll deprived sections to ensure assimilation and the system should be opened for admissions to girls and boys equally.
The Chief Minister said that the State Government had taken a major step to promote education and it had been decided to encourage deserving and meritorious students pursuing professional/technical and higher education courses in recognised institution in the Country.Virbhadra Singh announced to start "Mukhya Mantri Gyandeep Yojna” and expressed hope this scheme would encourage more students to pursue higher learning and the aim to achieve 36 percent enrolment in higher education by 2022 would be achieved much earlier.He said that security of employees should be the top priority. “I have high respect for the universities doing well and I hope that the other Universities would also catch up and flourish. The Government will like to foster, help and assist the universities and was ready to provide any help at any stage”, said Shri Virbhadra Singh.The Chief Minister congratulated the State Education Regulatory Commission, which has been working as a facilitator with the private institutions in order to improve the quality of education and constantly interacting with the stakeholders regarding streamlining the process and building a vision for such private institutions imparting higher education in the State.The representatives of as many as 16 universities participated in the workshop.
Chairperson, Private Educational Regulatory Commission, Smt. Sarojini Ganju Thakur said that all universities had developed a blue print as to how these private universities would look alike in next five years. She said many universities were doing commendable job and focusing on the needs of the youth of the state. She stressed over the coordination with the private and public universities to develop close relations with private regulatory commissions and the public universities, which was lacking at present. The norms of admission had to be defined much earlier, she added.Additional Chief Secretary, Shri P.C. Dhiman, Member, HP Private Educational Regulatory Commission, Shri Sunil Sharma were also present on the occasion, amongst the representatives of various private universities.