By Fr Soroj Mullick, SDB –
In the world’s largest young country India, the National Education Policy (draft 2019), its execution and utilisation pose new challenges. The challenge, as with other policies, lies in the implementation. It requires an honest, transparent and rigorous monitoring mechanism that can equally serve all. If not, we will put the cart before the horse which will have other social consequences.
The policies of the past, with lofty goals, have seldom brought about significant changes on the ground, neither have they been fully implemented. The National Education Policy (NEP) draft is a complex one with lot of good proposals for changes in today’s context. There are issues which have subtle consequences for the equal educational opportunities for all based on ideological biases.
The elaborate NEP (484-page) encompasses diverse segments: pre-school, school, higher, vocational and adult education, teacher training, regulatory board, etc. It suggests a multidisciplinary approach to curriculums, introducing semester exams with focus on learning outcomes and adaptability, integrating vocational courses to the academic studies.
It gives priority to teachers’ training and research funding in higher education, restructuring it into Type I (research), II (teaching), III (general colleges). This is done so, so that a ‘big’ money from the various sources can be channelled by the National Research Foundation (NRF) for research with focus on thrust areas relevant to ‘national priorities’ that are of interest for the ruling government, presumably with Hindutva ideology.
What is most intriguing is the creating of some regulatory bodies, parallel to the existing ones, in order to have political and ideological control over education by the ruling government. The government remains as both regulator and administrator but fails to keep up the quality and standard of education. There is certainly great gap between exposition and execution. The implementations procedures have not been carefully thought out. It is one thing to have a policy principle, while it is of utmost importance to have pedagogical approaches to realize them in concrete terms within a time frame, which the draft policy lacks.
The funding policy of such educational system that expects the education costs to rise to 20% of public expenditure in 10 years, can strangulate all noble intentions and plans (cf. Aroon Purie, editorial, India Today, 1 July 2019,). Quality educational institutions have short span of life in India, because without a growth of the Indian economy, funding is short-lived. Besides, this is not possible without compromising spending on other sectors. In short, this policy is going to rectify things that have not worked well in the past.
Basically, the government that grants funds, will control and manage the educational institutes and meddle with its management. In fact, it is an attempt to reinstate in both structure and spirit the present Government’s ‘idealized’ regulatory authority. The policy that favours a separation of regulatory powers from funding powers is self-evident to have its ‘political agenda’ under the apex commission – the Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA) – headed by the prime minister himself. It will also make appointments to all educational statutory bodies and implement the country’s education vision (read Hindutva) systematically. The ruling party’s sovereign head, will have political-ideological reins over all matters of education in the country (cf. D. Bhattacharya, The Telegraph,7th July 2019).
The 50% of RSA’s members will be from the political establishment, the rest will be some eminent educationists. These heads will certainly be of the government’s choice. The educational autonomy will suffer heavily under such majoritarian political representation in the RSA headed by the prime minister, neglecting the minority communities. It is more of a centralized control of education.
Tomorrow: Knowledge, Values and Skills Have to go Hand-in-Hand
Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB is a Salesian priest from the Kolkata Province. He has a Licentiate in Catechetics and a Doctorate (Christian Education) from UPS, Italy. He has number of years of teaching experience in college and in the formation of future priests. Besides, he has written number of research papers and articles, and has 25 years of Ministry in India and abroad as Educator, Formator, Retreat Preacher, Editor and engaged in School, Parish Catechetical & Youth Ministry. He is now an assistant priest in Bandel Basilica, rendering pastoral and catechetical ministry to the parishioners and to the pilgrims. He can be contacted at [email protected].