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Over the last two years, education in India was often in the limelight for the wrong reasons. Whether it was the debates around the HRD minister’s educational qualifications, the suicide of Rohith Vermula and subsequent events at Hyderabad University, the fracas at JNU and absolute disregard for student agitation, the sacking of two university vice chancellors, and evolving saffronisation, education across the country found itself appropriated by one absurdist controversy after another.
Instead of using her assertive personality to bring tangible shifts in a sector that could change India’s growth trajectory, Smriti Irani was often seen oscillating between social media spats, or on the defensive or the offensive over one banal controversy or the other. Her personality often preceded her department’s policies, and its detrimental consequences were heard resonating across university campuses including the IITs and IIMs.
Prakash Javadekar’s appointment as the new HRD minister is at the midpoint of the Modi government’s term. His tasks include cleaning up the previous minister’s pending items and finding his own moorings in this ministry. He will need to work at three levels which include policy, politics and ideology. At the policy level, there are defined outcomes expected of the minister, the most significant, according to reports, being resolving the logjam between the PMO and the HRD ministry over the autonomy the proposed universities under the “world-class universities” project should have. The second would be to finalise the National Education Policy, which was to be released by Irani prior to the shuffle. The third would be to complete the establishment of the National Academic Depository, to maintain national-level databases of all academic qualifications. Other pending items include establishment of a Vedic Education Board for ved pathshalas and gurukuls, initiating a review of the school curriculums along with drafting a language policy.
So far the most significant HRD ministry decisions have been with respect to higher education. Attention to some of the micro-issues with respect to school education within and outside of the mandates of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is necessary. As the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has found, even after the annual government spending per child increased, learning outcomes did not improve. There needs to be more focus with respect to teacher training, infrastructure development and improving syllabus across schools. Reading levels across schools remain low, and math levels have declined in almost every state. Teacher shortage in government schools — there are over seven lakh vacancies — also needs urgent attention of the minister.
A government that has built a reputation for being “anti-intellectual”, will find it in its own interests to consider the opinions and criticisms from academics and intellectuals across the ideological spectrum, especially in designing new policy initiatives and curriculum.
At the political level, the new minister will need to manage and work with state governments where policy implementation will have to precede politics. The minister’s office should take precedence over his personal identity and political affiliation. Irani’s lack of tact in handling controversies clouded her significant achievements, such as the completion of the Swachh Vidyalaya target, of having over four lakh toilets in government schools. Managing criticism without resorting to pettiness, working in collaboration with the state governments, and allocating work across bureaucratic verticals are aspects of the job.
Most significantly, the new minister needs to ensure that ideology does not percolate and hijack the reformist agenda. Poor policies can be redesigned or rolled back. Ideological indoctrination, however, can have grave consequences. Tampering with academic syllabus, distorting historical facts, deleting historical figures who don’t align with contemporary political agendas, and an unreasonable promotion of tradition over scientific reasoning are reducing education to a single perspective and a farce. The purpose of education is to open minds and new vistas; not to force students to live in an imagined golden past or within the wastelands of the known.
Escalating majoritarianism, the uncontested goal of saffronisation, dilutes democracy and promotes bigotry. The new education minister must steer clear of this path and try to reassure detractors that this government is serious about its growth and development agenda outside the ambit of ideological authoritarianism.
Tradition and cultural values no doubt are important, but the primary purpose of a modern education is to boost intellectual, social and economic growth and spur innovation and employment. In the long run, a country cemented on false ideals of nationalistic pride and ideology will become like Pakistan, which is fast disintegrating because of the influence its indoctrinated madrassas and agenda-driven and state-approved curriculum wields on education. A modern and holistic education cannot be framed if it is confined to local or even national culture or a single set of disciplines. It will need to encompass aspects of scientific reasoning, liberal values, analysis and progressive ideologies.
The new minister has asserted that his priority is to “raise the quality of education and ensure that it encouraged innovation”. This is an encouraging sign. One hopes the rhetoric is matched by protracted action. It will require him to balance policy design and implementation, political management and ideological pigeonholes.
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/prakash-javedkar-hrd-ministry-education-minister-modi-cabinet-reshuffle-smriti-irani-2905599/
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