HRD minister Smriti Irani today rejected a demand for waiving off rustication and other punishments meted out to students in universities, terming it a "Pandora's Box" and saying that these institutions have been granted autonomy to handle administrative matters.



Irani's comments in Rajya Sabha came in the backdrop of recent action by JNU authorities imposing fine on student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and rustication of some other students in connection with the controversial February 9 campus event against Afzal Guru's hanging.



Her reaction came during a debate on the functioning of her ministry when Congress member Ananda Bhaskar Rapolu said the students were looking at Irani's "magnanimity" to waive off punishments and rustication of students in various universities.



In her response, Irani said "this minister is a mere mortal who is tied to this very Parliament and this Parliament does not allow intervention in the administrative matter of any University.



"My request is only this. This is a pandora's box, I am sure you don't want to open that....Let the University be autonomous enough."



Earlier in the day, members in Rajya Sabha had sought the government's intervention in resolving the protests by JNU students by advising the authorities to reconsider their decision to severely penalise some of them.



Deputy Chairman P J Kurien had also said the government should resolve the issue and had asked Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to convey the feeling of the House to the concerned Ministers.



Irani, in her 70-minute long reply, also lamented that there appeared to be a "Sanskrit phobia" and said the Government or NCERT have not carried out any change in the curriculum.



Referring to Rapolu who she said had called her 'Sanskrit Irani', she said a recent circular to IITs only asked them to pick up those parts of work in Sanskrit language which contained scientific knowledge.



She said a US university academic came to Tamil Nadu to do research on the oldest treatise in Geometry but not many in India know about the contributions made by the country.



"The challenge is where do you bridge the gap. Where do you introduce the subject or for that matter, give the freedom to academicians to absorb it, without being called communal or saffron," Irani said.



On members' concerns over appointments in various educational institutions, Irani sought to make it clear that her ministry only functioned as the "secretariat" of the President by forwarding the names for appointment of Vice Chancellors.



She defended the appointments saying the key nominations made or recommended by her in IITs, were all of eminent people belonging to the fields of science, commerce or industry.



Experts in nanoscience, linguistics, communications or even in missile technology had been appointed as Directors of various IITs and even those appointed by UPA government who had done well had been retained, she said.



Speaking on the curriculum, Irani elaborated on the gamut of programmes that her ministry had undertaken in the fields of school as well as higher education.



She said her ministry was working to create a system where teachers are rewarded for teaching and improving learning outcomes.



"Teachers' promotion needs to depend on the promotion of their class, when a teacher is involved completely in teaching the students and does not involve in extra curricular activity, that teacher is in no way penalised, this government has decided," she said.



Irani said when a proper notification on Academic Performance Indicator scores comes out, many teachers who have been agitating on this issue will get relief.



The Minister said that it is natural for people to question when "political announcements" are made on whether work is being carried out on the ground.



Referring to an experiment in a UP district of Auraiya, she said an IIT Lucknow faculty member had trained some teachers after which students started showing greater interest in government schools than private ones.



Assuring members that actual ground work was being done by her ministry, Irani mentioned that from next academic session there will be a pan India child tracking system, through which Aadhar numbers would be used or students will be provided with a unique identity number.



This initiative she said would help in monitoring the academic progress of students "per child, per class" and help in finding individual specific solutions if the student needs remedial assistance, will the student pass or drop out.



Fifteen states, she said, were already taking part in this initiative.



Information collected through technology regarding teachers will help in rational deployment of teaching professionals, which would also ensure that all classes have teachers, the Minister said, adding it would ensure quality of teachers as well.



Speaking on the midday meal scheme, she said a committee headed by AIIMS paediatrician Vinod Paul, set up to make recommendations regarding nutritional requirements for the scheme, has submitted its report which will be forwarded to states.



She said to assist the states, Centre was also willing to provide a transport fee for taking children to schools.



Referring to real time monitoring along with reviews of key schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan with regard to school education, she said states have been asked to fill vacancies to ensure quality of teachers.



She said a portal that would let states about the quality of training by their District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) was also in the works.



States have been asked to form separate cadre for teacher trainers, she said and added that 15-18 states have shown interest in this.



To concerns about the recent CBSE exam, Irani said "for example the maths paper of CBSE, which came into much controversy and people said was very tough", the ministry was trying to progressively take students on the path of applying what has been learnt.



Irani also said that her ministry is also trying to facilitate students who have discontinued regular education because they started working and a Bachelor's Degree in vocational education was also being given through the UGC.



She also mentioned various schemes of her ministry like GIAN under which foreign faculty would teach in India, and a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) project which will allow students to pursue courses online and supported by a mobile app.