While Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal continues with his foreign trips unabated, four important institutions under his ministry, National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), National Book Trust (NBT), Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are currently awaiting the appointment of their new chiefs.
Official sources stated that with the ministry being unable to finalise the names of heads of these institutions, they have been operating with makeshift arrangements over the past few months, adversely affecting the functioning of these institutions. Despite several meetings and deliberations, the ministry has failed to appoint heads of these institutions.
Despite repeated claims of concerns over improvement in the education sector, the NCERT, the premiere body for textbook and syllabi selection at the school level, has been without a director since March 2010, ever since the tenure of Prof. Krishna Kumar ended.
National Book Trust, also doesn’t have a director ever since Nuzhat Hasan, left the institution about six months back.
The HRD ministry hasn’t given a green signal for the appointment of new directors to these two institutions despite the importance of these institutions.
The situation is similar at the two premiere Central universities of DU and JNU. The tenure of JNU vice-chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya ended on June 30. While the tenure of the current vice-chancellor of DU, Prof. Deepak Pental, expired on August 31.
In both these cases the search committee have shortlisted and recommended a few names. Sources stated that despite several rounds of deliberations candidates for the posts are yet to be finalised.
HRD ministry sources, however, claimed that the appointments to these positions would be made soon.