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HomeIndiaGovernanceModi govt hasn’t delivered on its biggest education promise yet

Modi govt hasn’t delivered on its biggest education promise yet

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BJP had promised a new education policy to replace the 32-year-old existing one, but after four years, the draft is yet to be submitted.

New Delhi: Within the first 100 days of the BJP-led NDA coming to power in 2014, then-human resource development minister Smriti Irani had stressed on the need for a New Education Policy for India, as the one which is being followed was formulated in 1986.

Official deliberations on the new policy began in January 2015. But after two committees and a lot of consultation with various stakeholders, India is yet to see the policy, which was Narendra Modi’s biggest promise in the field of education.

On 15 December, while speaking at the convocation ceremony of Goa University,
Prakash Javadekar, who is now in charge of the HRD portfolio, said a draft of the New Education Policy is ready, and the committee will submit it soon.

Sources in the ministry, however, told ThePrint the government is not likely to announce the policy in the near future.

“There are about two months left for the Model Code of Conduct to come into force, which makes the probability of the policy being announced very bleak. Though there is nothing controversial in the policy draft, it will definitely have political repercussions,” said a source aware of the developments.

“But even if government decides to take a calculated risk and announce the policy anyway, there is nothing that it can change. A policy takes many years to implement. It should have ideally been announced in the first two years of the government, so that rest of the years could’ve gone in its implementation.”

A policy is not a binding law which would be applicable immediately, and mostly needs to be further deliberated upon and improvised. It is then implemented through circulars, laws and, if needed, a constitutional provision.


Also read: 4 years on, India’s still waiting for new education policy — Modi govt’s big 2014 promise


Why did it take so long?

The HRD ministry first constituted a committee headed by former cabinet secretary T.S.R. Subramanian to work on the policy draft in 2015. When the committee submitted its report in May 2016, the ministry held several consultations with various stakeholders on the report’s contents. In 2017, when Javadekar took over as HRD minister, the report was rejected and the committee disbanded.

The Javadekar-led ministry then formed another committee under former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K. Kasturirangan. The committee began work on the policy in July 2017, and was to submit a report by December 2017, but has so far received a number of extensions.

Suggestions in new policy

Those aware of the policy draft say a number of points from the Subramanian committee’s report have been used in the new policy draft. Major recommendations included improving the education system at the school level.

The committee recommended that a Teacher Entrance Test (TET) should be made compulsory, and the minimum eligibility to take admission in B.Ed. courses should be at least 50 per cent marks at the graduate level.

It also suggested that an Indian Education Service (IES) should be established as an all-India service, and the HRD Ministry should be its controlling authority.

Declaring pre-school education for children in the age group of 4 to 5 years as a right and a implementing a policy for it were also suggested.


Also read: Inputs from RSS chief, gurukul heads may be included in Modi govt’s new education policy


Do we need pan-India policy?

Former education secretary Anil Swarup, who was instrumental in bringing a number of policy changes at the school education level, has questioned the need to have a uniform policy for the entire country.

“India is too diverse to consider a single mandate by way of policy for the entire country. Can a new education policy solve the problems that beset this sector? Problems vary from region to region. If policies were to solve the problems of the country, they would have all been solved long ago,” Swarup told ThePrint.

“Instead, what is actually required is an action plan clearly outlining what needs to be done, how will it be done, who will do it, and by when. The roles of the respective entities should be clearly defined so that performance can be assessed.”

He also suggested that instead of a uniform policy, there should be state-wise policies, keeping in mind the specific demands of each state.

The ministry had already started work on two state-specific policy roadmaps, one for Uttar Pradesh and another one for Jammu and Kashmir. According to sources in the ministry, there was also a plan to have a roadmap for Bihar, but it never took off.

An earlier version of the report erroneously identified former cabinet secretary T.S.R. Subramanian as a scientist. The error is regretted.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Some political appointments are made on compulsions / calculations that ordinary citizens do not understand. However, the new government could have chosen a gifted HRD minister. For many Indian families, it is their children’s education that holds the key to a better future. If the mantris were not upto scratch, better santris could have been chosen, not shuffled around every six months. And frankly all this mythology about rewriting history texts, orienting the education system to reflect a particular ideology is completely passe’. Singapore has one of the world’s best education systems. How difficult would it be to learn from them, no doubt after accounting for the disparity in financial resources.

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