Education system needs major overhaul
With a new dispensation at the Centre, the new HRD Minister will have the arduous task of revamping the education system from primary to higher and technical education system besides ensuring an increased budgetary allocation for the Ministry — of upto six per cent of the GDP.
Higher education system has been plagued by irregularities in appointments due to political interferences which saw even tainted persons on the posts of Directors of prestigious institutions like IITs. But it was unquestioned by the former HRD Ministers MM Pallam Raju and Kapil Sibal. Raju, considered to be one of the honest Ministers of UPA till he was MoS Defence, in fact, earned the disrepute of irregularities in several appointments of academic institutions at the top level.
The worst noted case was the selection of 12 central university VCs when the lok Sabha election was underway and Model Code of Conduct was in force. The new HRD Minister will be virtually presiding over a mess left behind by the previous Government. The UPA-II wanted to change the face of higher education through a slew of legislations but all fell through in Parliament.
Except for the mega Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) for improving and upgrading the higher education system in the country, the UPA Government have nothing to boast of. The new regime would have to strengthen the RUSA programme and the huge gap between Central and State universities have to be bridged.
A quality audit of IITs/IIMs is required and the institutions will have to be getting rid of politics within and political interferences witnessed during the last decade. To reach to the global standards, the IITs will have to dedicate more to research activities. The new Government will also face demands from certain sections to do away with Delhi University’s four-year undergraduate programme that proved to be disastrous in the first year. Besides this, the NDA would have to rethink on allowing foreign universities to open campus in India. The Bill is pending in Parliament and once legislation is in place.
Sibal had his say in changing the entrance test format for IIT aspirants amidst outrage across the country. The implementation of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) and making Class X examinations optional has been criticised as students have not taken examination system very seriously leading to decline in the learning and awareness capacity in school education.
The syllabus of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a brainchild of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government and also considered to be the vehicle of RTE of the UPA, has to be remodeled with top priority given to teaching English. Besides Mid-Day Meal needs a serious revamp as during the last many years several children have lost their lives and in many instances en masse after consuming the meals. There is a lot of speculation that just like its (NDA) earlier regime the Modi-led NDA may get into changing NCERT textbooks if demanded by RSS.