How India’s National Education Policy evolved over the years

The government began the process of drafting a new National Education Policy last year with extensive grassroots consultations. The effort culminated in an expert committee assimilating the feedback and submitting about 90 inputs for the policy document. But the initiative was marred by controversy after committee head TSR Subramanian, unhappy over the government’s secrecy about its suggestions, asked HRD Minister Smriti Irani to make the report public — or, he said, he would. The government did not relent, and Subramanian recently released the report’s highlights. Some of these can be controversial — and have generated a lot of debate over the potential shape of the new policy.

What purpose does a National Education Policy serve? Why is the government so invested in drafting one?

It serves as a comprehensive framework to guide the development of education in the country. A new policy has come along every few decades and has been a milestone — comparable, say, to the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1976 through which education was moved from the State to the Concurrent List, or the 86th Amendment in 2002 under which education became an enforceable right. It offers the government of the day an opportunity to leave its imprint on the country’s education system. The Janata Party, of which the Jana Sangh — precursor to the BJP — was part, had attempted to draw up a policy in 1979, but it was not approved by the Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE), the most important advisory body to the government in the field of education. So, in a way, this is the BJP’s second attempt at drafting the National Education Policy.

http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/smriti-irani-tsr-subramanian-new-national-education-policy-hrd-ministry-education-2869946/

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