New Delhi: Unemployment has become one of the talking points this election season and if this debate is expanded, it should include school and college reforms in the country.
So who are India’s MPs who spent a considerable amount of time in Parliament debating education?
Based on the data in the MY543 initiative, ThePrint brings you a list of 10 MPs who asked the most questions on education in the 16th Lok Sabha.
The list includes eight MPs from Maharashtra, one from Tamil Nadu and one from UP.
Based on the party-wise classification, there are three MPs from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), three from the Shiv Sena and one each from the BJP, Congress, AIADMK and SP.
Their questions included a range of issues — from the establishment of educational institutions, curriculum changes, and better school infrastructure to the promotion of research in higher educational institutions.
Here are the MPs with details of some of the interesting questions they had asked:
Supriya Sule (97): At the top of the list is the NCP MP from Baramati. Some of her important questions relate to the inclusion of financial literacy in the school curriculum and the establishment of a Higher Education Commission.
Rajeev Shankarrao Satav (90): This Congress MP from Hingoli, Maharashtra, posed important questions related to reported malpractice in Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and development of a more skill-based curriculum.
Dhananjay Mahadik (86): The NCP MP from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, focused on the problem of school drop-outs. He asked questions such as the number of drop-outs in the NSSO survey and the possibility of the rotary clubs assisting the dropouts.
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Heena Gavit (82): A BJP MP from Nandurbar, Maharashtra, she asked questions related to the quality of teachers in educational institutes. These included questions about teachers’ absence, their shortage, vacancies, and training among others.
Shrirang Barne (71): The Shiv Sena MP from Maval, Maharashtra, asked multiple questions pertaining to the quality of education in general. They include queries on the modernisation of education, review of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and plans for improvement of technical education among others.
Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil (71): The NCP MP from Madha asked interesting questions such as this one on a World Bank Report that relates quality of education with economic development.
Anandrao Adsul (70): Shiv Sena veteran from Amravati is the only one in this list to have enquired of government’s plans to come up with an alternative education system.
Shivaji Adhalarao Patil (69): This Shiv Sena MP from Shirur asked some specific questions such as one on the government’s plans to create a separate body for the financing of higher education.
Dharmendra Yadav (67): One of the only two non-Maharashtra MPs in this list, this Samajwadi Party MP from Badaun in UP stressed on the role of sports in education. He enquired about the DISE report that talks about the lack of playgrounds in many schools.
Jayakumar Jayavardhan (59): An AIADMK MP from Chennai South, he asked some important but not necessarily uncommon questions like those on educational facilities for differently-abled students and e-classrooms in schools.
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Very happy to read this. Maharashtra is a progressive state, with a long history of social emancipation.