New measures but low spending a worry
The human resource development (HRD) ministry has had a mixed bag of achievements. While there has been substantial progress on autonomy to institutions, its much touted National Education Policy (NEP) is yet to take off.
The ministry put behind protests over free speech, fellowships and the 2016 suicide of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, and fasttracked work on granting complete autonomy to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management , and central universities.
To put Indian universities at par with top global universities, it introduced a scheme of “Institutes of Eminence” under which the government will assist 20 institutions — 10 public and 10 private. In the past four years, a number of new institutes, including IIMs, IITs and IISERs, have also been started. The government started Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on a platform called SWAYAM and has approved regulations for starting online degrees.
However, several promises remain unfulfilled. Restructuring of the University Grants Commission (UGC) into a Higher Education Commission rather than just a grant distribution agency has been slow. The Bharatiya Janata Party manifesto had also assured public spending on education would be raised to 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP but in 2017-18, it was 2.6%
To make entrance exams more professional, the government set up the National Testing Agency (NTA) which is likely to conduct the first test in December. The body will conduct all entrance tests to institutes of higher education.
For school education, an integrated scheme has been launched covering preprimary to class 12 to provide a holistic approach . The government also prepared learning outcomes, which are the minimum expected levels of learning for students, and conducted the first National Achievement Survey (NAS) for classes 3, 5, 8 and 10.
The ministry, on the recommendation of the states, also taken a decision to scrap the no-detention policy of the Right to Education (RTE) Act which will require approval from Parliament. The government reintroduced Class 10 board exams for schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which was welcomed by various stakeholders.
The government has also initiated work on rationalising the curriculum. However, this is also dependent on the National Education Policy (NEP) the final draft of which is still being prepared.
“I do welcome the sort of autonomy they have granted to the IIMs and the other thing they could is to decentralise the kind of control they have on higher education that is exercised across India by a handful of central agencies. These agencies have limited knowledge of the needs and challenges of different regions of India in terms of education,” said Dinesh Singh, former Delhi University vice-chancellor.
“But much as they criticised the Congress, they have blindly followed a tradition which even the Congress had discarded namely creating a central policy for education. Which policy created Harvard or Cambridge? They haven’t tried to understand the real issues,” he said.
NEW DELHI: