Health Ministry may keep medical education to itself

“It is not possible to bring all aspects of higher education under one overarching body. It will create chaos only,” Azad told reporters.

Higher Education Secretary Vibha Puri Das and officials of HRD Ministry today met Health Secretary Sujatha Rao and discussed the proposal to set up National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) as an overarching body in higher education.

A task force,set up by the HRD Ministry to prepare the draft NCHER Bill,has favoured bringing health education under the ambit of the proposed regulatory body.

“We have so many bodies like Nursing Council,Dental Council,Pharmacy Council,Council for Unani and Ayurveda. To bring them under one body is not possible. Health and HRD are totally different subjects,” Azad said.

He said the Health Ministry is working for creation of National Council for Human Resource in Health (NCHRH) which will look after all aspects of health education.

Health Secretary Rao also completely ruled out shifting of health education from the domain of Health Ministry.

“There is no question (of health education being transferred to HRD). Medical science cannot be divorced from actual health policy,” Rao said after the meeting.

She said the Health Ministry has also set up a task force for NCHRH which will meet with members of the task force of HRD Ministry to discuss the issues related to general education and health education.

“Such a situation should not arise that the both the proposed bodies are not in alignment. We have to ensure that both the bodies are not working for cross purposes,” Rao said.

Higher Education Secretary Das said the functioning of ministries and departments will continue as per the Transaction of Business Rules. As per the rules,health education comes under the domain of Health Ministry.

“The Transaction of Business Rules cannot be changed.

Each ministry is doing its job. We discussed the issue of how to improve the oversight of higher education as a whole. We will continue to talk,” Das said.

The officials of both the ministries expressed their willingness to work in tandem for improving higher education and health sciences. Das said HRD Ministry will continue talks with Health Ministry and is working towards an “agreed solution” on the issue.