Little ventured, even less gained
Not enough was done
After a three-year stint, educational reforms man Kapil Sibal quietly exited from the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) in October, to be replaced by Pallam Raju.
During his action-packed tenure, Sibal stirred and shook awake the education sector.
He scrapped the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 Boards, initiated a continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) to assess students and introduced a single entrance examination for premium engineering and medical institutions. But Parliament pressed the pause button on a whole lot of crucial bills meant to bring in massive education reforms.
There was some movement on the part of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission (UGC), two bodies that actively sought alternative routes to improve the education system.
Private players emerged in a better light than the sarkar this year, if one goes by the findings of the FICCI-Ernst and Young report on Higher Education 2012.
Still, in a year when most college principals focused on trivialities such as enforcing medieval dress codes and university teachers and students locked horns over the implementation of semester systems, serious initiatives to improve the system on the part of regulatory authorities, public and private institutes were few and far between.