BSM seeks panel for monitoring edu system

Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal’ (BSM)- an RSS outfit- on Wednesday said that it would move the Supreme Court demanding that the minority status of an educational institution should be decided on the basis of the “number of beneficiaries” and not because of its management showing over 50 per cent minority representation.

Presenting an educational policy draft, the BSM sought creation of an independent, autonomous education commission for supervising and controlling all aspects of the education system with its units set up in all the districts of the country. Moving away from “the Government control”, the commission will draw 65 to 75 per cent of its members from the field of education with the rest coming from areas like industry, social workers and teacher representative associations. 

The final document to be ready by January 2016 will be sent to the Centre and all State Governments for consideration.Speaking to media, Joint Organising Secretary of BSM Mukul Kanitkar said Centre has a little role in education as majority of it is covered by the States. He said the final document would be sent to all the States for its consideration and implementation.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the performance of Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smiriti Irani, the RSS leader said “ Sahmat nahin, Santusht hain.. (not in agreement with but satisfied)”.The draft policy lays emphasis on the moral and integral development of the students who would go for a skill and vocational education in rural skill institutes who may further their studies in polytechnics or may join professional colleges. It suggests that one vocational subject and one classical language should be made compulsory in class 9 to 12. 

“There should not be any exams in classes one and two , only oral exams in classes three and four , written exams in classes five and six , practical exams in classes seven and eight , exams based on internal monthly tests and annual exams in classes nine and 10. The weightage of the internal and the external exams should be in the ration of 40:60”, said Kanitkar. 

He said system of pass or fail should be abrogated and anyone scoring at least 50 per cent marks should be eligible for being promoted to higher class.

BSM leader said his organisation was against the centralised syllabus. “The child is mugging up about the Mississippi River in the USA but does not know the name of the river in his village”, said the Joint-Organising Secretary of the BSM.

Kanitkar said Many minority run educational institutions have misused the privilege of autonomy granted to them by the Constitution and maintained that BSM was considering legal options to change the criterion that defines such institutions.“There are many minority institutions whose management comprises minorities but among students the number of majority community is more. Despite that, they don’t implement RTE, they don’t implement Government’s public welfare policies. Such misuse has happened,” he said.The education policy draft also seeks to provide review of this model of education after every four to five years by way of seeking feedback from the public through a national survey.