A long due overhaul of India’s education system is on the anvil. In his Independence Day address prime minister Manmohan Singh announced that his government was going to set up a commission to suggest improvements in education at all levels.
Although he has not elaborated on the commission’s mandate, it does seem that what is being planned could be comprehensive enough to be a New Education Policy. When India won freedom from colonial rule, illiteracy was among the many challenges it confronted. Although illiteracy has diminished it remains widespread. There are other problems too, including lack of access to good quality education, female illiteracy, uninspiring curriculums in schools and so on that have dodged solutions so far. Hopefully, the commission will have imaginative and bold ideas to tackle these issues head-on.
Twice over the last 60 years the government has laid out a New Education Policy. The first came in 1968. It sought to achieve national integration through education and called for implementation of the three-language formula. In 1986 came the next Education Policy. It launched Operation Blackboard to improve primary education.
It played an important role in encouraging technical education in India and can perhaps take credit for India’s emergence as an engineering powerhouse. Much has changed in India and the world in the decades since and there is a need to update India’s education system to make it more responsive to the needs of a globalised world.
The prime minister has hinted that universalisation of secondary education will be on the agenda of the proposed education policy. Under the Right to Education legislation, every Indian has the right to secure primary education. The government now proposes to take this further by making secondary education a right too. Commercialisation of education is an issue it must address.
The policies of 1968 and 1986 were announced with much fanfare but much of what they set out to do remains on paper. Thus, making out a fancy framework to guide education policies and programmes must be accompanied by implementation of that blueprint. The vision of the commission will determine the new policy and that in turn will depend on the quality, expertise, experience and outlook of those who people it.
A new education policy is a historic mission. It must not get bogged down in petty politics. The government must seek input and opinions. The process of framing the policy should be consultative.
Although he has not elaborated on the commission’s mandate, it does seem that what is being planned could be comprehensive enough to be a New Education Policy. When India won freedom from colonial rule, illiteracy was among the many challenges it confronted. Although illiteracy has diminished it remains widespread. There are other problems too, including lack of access to good quality education, female illiteracy, uninspiring curriculums in schools and so on that have dodged solutions so far. Hopefully, the commission will have imaginative and bold ideas to tackle these issues head-on.
Twice over the last 60 years the government has laid out a New Education Policy. The first came in 1968. It sought to achieve national integration through education and called for implementation of the three-language formula. In 1986 came the next Education Policy. It launched Operation Blackboard to improve primary education.
It played an important role in encouraging technical education in India and can perhaps take credit for India’s emergence as an engineering powerhouse. Much has changed in India and the world in the decades since and there is a need to update India’s education system to make it more responsive to the needs of a globalised world.
The prime minister has hinted that universalisation of secondary education will be on the agenda of the proposed education policy. Under the Right to Education legislation, every Indian has the right to secure primary education. The government now proposes to take this further by making secondary education a right too. Commercialisation of education is an issue it must address.
The policies of 1968 and 1986 were announced with much fanfare but much of what they set out to do remains on paper. Thus, making out a fancy framework to guide education policies and programmes must be accompanied by implementation of that blueprint. The vision of the commission will determine the new policy and that in turn will depend on the quality, expertise, experience and outlook of those who people it.
A new education policy is a historic mission. It must not get bogged down in petty politics. The government must seek input and opinions. The process of framing the policy should be consultative.
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