New policy must be rounded, comprehensive
Given the varied challenges facing the Indian education system today, the new National Education Policy, expected to be released before May 26, has a long list of hopes to fulfill. It is currently being put together following extensive consultations with stakeholders from across the board and at the grassroots level, and one wishes that it will reflect the opinions, contributions and best practices of all parties. Indeed, the policy must be the vehicle that will serve the aspirations of a resurgent nation. India's youth bulge has been described as its demographic dividend, but if this youth is not properly educated (and skilled) and cannot become productive members of society, the dividend will quickly become a disaster, spurring large-scale social unrest and turmoil across the country. Already, there have been several warning signs that India's education system be it at the primary level or at the university level or in the vocational training sector — is not being able to meet the requirements of individuals and society alike. A handful of elite institutions apart, the rest function at appalling standards. Industry leaders routinely complain that graduates even from relatively ‘good institutes' are not employable. An education crisis is looming large. It is against this backdrop that the new policy will have to play out.
Almost every sector in the education field, from teacher training to school infrastructure to assessment models to curriculum, requires reforms and upgrades. However, if there is one field that demands immediate attention, it is primary education. The poor state of primary education in this country is not just damaging for the individual but an irreparable loss for the nation. It does not require a stretch of imagination to see how the current demand of some socially well-off communities to be labelled as backward or marginalised, so as to be eligible for reservation in jobs and schools, is at least partly linked to the crisis in the education system — which survey after survey has shown, is failing its youngest students. Pratham's Annual Status of Education Report has repeatedly highlighted how, for example, more than half of Class V students cannot read Class II-level text or how a similar percentage of students finishes eight years of schooling without learning basic arithmetic. The numbers are deteriorating with every passing year, for both Government and private schools even though the latter perform significantly better than the former. This, in turn, points to the even graver crisis at Government schools, which cater to a large chunk of the population.
Given the politics of the day and the manner in which Indian education has evolved since independence, one can assume that the BJP-led NDA Government's policy, no matter how it is shaped, will create controversy. The Right-of-Centre regime is committed to correcting the leftist biases that have crept into the system, while the left-leaning Opposition and the larger intellectual ecosystem that it has nurtured is already screaming ‘saffronisation'. This will be a big battle and it is one that needs to be fought. However, in the midst of deciding how much attention should go to Maharana Pratap in comparison to, say Aurangzeb, the Government must not lose sight of the main goals.