Knowledge
What can the government do to create a successful policy out of the draft National Education Policy?
The draft National Education Policy has covered a wide gamut of issues and tried to address all of them to make the education system a resilient one. If the government heeds the measures we may end up creating a strong educational foundation.
Now that the recommendations of the TSR Subramanian committee have been released to the HRD Ministry and further revealed in the media. It is time for the customary analysis of the draft National Education Policy from various quarters including experts, media and various other agencies. Here is an attempt not to analyse the draft but to view it in its entirety and explore the way forward if this draft were to hold. The draft, which has been prepared after nationwide consultations identifies the gaps in the education system and offers solutions to better manage a sector that employees one crore teachers and educates nearly 25 crore students.
The first big question is whether the recommendations in the draft policy will be implemented by the central and state governments. The NEP boldly concedes that due to the earlier policy of 1986 enrolment has significantly shot up but quality has suffered. Learning outcomes are deteriorating at the primary and upper primary school levels, while no Indian university figures in the top-200 universities at the global level.
This committee too, like other expert bodies in the past, has proposed that public spending on education be hiked to 6% of the GDP. However, the spending on education has never exceeded 3.5% of the GDP. However, if the committee’s suggestions like teacher training, recruitment, school management and improvement of pedagogic techniques were to see the light of the day, governments will have to loosen the purse strings.
The committee has pointed out that flawed recruitment, poor training, low wages and bad service conditions are to be blamed for the poor crop of teachers in the system. The way forward suggested by the committee is an independent Teacher Recruitment Commissions and the formulation of transparent and merit based norms and guidelines for recruitment of teachers and principals. It has also sought the publicising and quick filling of vacancies at all levels.
Regarding teacher training which is the single most essential pillar of improving teacher quality, the NEP proposes a 4-year integrated BA/B.Sc and B.Ed courses so that students can opt for it as a professional choice, rather than the current system which presents teaching as the career choice of last resort. In fact, giving a fillip to the concept of teacher training, the NEP also suggests that the SCERT create a cadre of teacher-trainers at the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) and put them on par with college lecturers. However, the committee is well aware and takes cognisance of the fact that the vacancies in the SCERT and the DIETs will have to be filled first. This finally brings us to where the actual rot lies. Every tier of the educational system is broken and the central and state governments must decide where to begin fixing the rot.
While these are constructive measures, there are some which are ruffling feathers. The committee’s proposals on higher education are causing disquiet on campuses. The proposal to restrict political activities on campuses may have some justification in the context of study hours lost due to strikes. But the central and state governments must also disengage completely from the affairs of universities and colleges. It is surprising that a draft which starts off with a wide scope and engages various segments of the education sector trips on recent controversies which erupted on campuses of Hyderabad Central University, IIT Madras, Jawaharlal Nehru University and FTII, Pune and offers solutions to their problems. This has created a diversion of attention from key recommendations like the total revamp of the higher education sector by reducing the influence of UGC and restricting its functions to providing grants and fellowships. In the past, the UGC has faced charges of corruption in granting recognition to various private institutions and failed in ensuring quality.
The current draft offers an exhaustive list of to-dos for the government unlike the 1986 NPE which was a broad document and offered few specifics. The Subramanian committee has rightly recognised that India’s educational system needs robust institutions at the national, state and district level to manage and provide technical inputs for schools and colleges and has proposed to create such institutions and reform the existing ones. If this proposal for engendering independent institutions is heeded by state and central governments, it will make all the difference between a successful education policy and a meandering, unfocussed one.