Task force set up to regulate media schools

MADURAI/COIMBATORE: After attempting to regulate deemed universities an professional institutions, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Task Force to evolve guidelines for media schools in the country.The 15-member Task Force will make recommendations on ensuring quality in journalism and mass communication training institutions along with providing access and equity.The MHRD has constituted the Task Force after it was brought to its notice that institutions in the field of TV, print media, journalism, films, etc offer courses of different durations and different quality “often charging exorbitant fee from students without ensuring trained staff, fully-equipped facilities and a formally-recognised institutional framework.”Among the members of the panel are former media advisor to the Prime Minister Sanjaya Baru, senior journalists Shekhar Gupta of The Indian Express, Siddharth Varadarajan of The Hindu, Alok Mehta of Nai Duniya and UGC joint secretary K P Singh. Last month, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni had announced that the mushrooming of media training institutes in the country would be reviewed. “This growth rate, this interest in the print media has led to a lot of so called training schools. Media shops, as sometimes people are calling them,” she had observed. Soni was critical of the exorbitant fees charged by some media schools.  “People do complain that we paid `2 lakh for a diploma but the diploma is not recognised,” she said. The Information Minister had written to her counterpart in the HRD Ministry to evolve ground rules for such institutions so that students who enrolled in them were not  disillusioned later. R P Sisodia, Joint Secretary, MHRD, in a communication said, the Task Force would examine and identify issues related to standards of education in institutions offering courses in media-related disciplines.  It will examine the regulations governing such courses, the duration and syllabi. The Task Force will explore the possibility of bringing in a mechanism for accrediting media schools through third party certification.