Business Today – August 25, 2019

The National Education Policy draft is

path-breaking in the changes it suggests

to reform Indian education. But implementation

and funding could be huge challenges.

By E. KUMAR SHARMA

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAISON G

STARTING

A NEW CHAPTER

EDUCATION SPECIAL > POLICY

PACE SCIENTIST K.

Kasturirangan points

out that sky is the limit

and there is enough

room to drive growth

in the Indian education

sector. Anyone who has read the 400-

page draft of the National Education

Policy 2019 (NEP), authored by the

nine-member team headed by him,

will not only agree with him but also

find that the draft is an excellent text on

what needs to be done for education in

India, with clearly stated objectives to

be achieved by 2030.

“This is a document with vision and

futuristic thought and there are many

aspects within higher education that

are progressive, such as the emphasis

on taking a longer term view of skills to

be developed (as opposed to job readi-

ness),” says Ranjan Banerjee, Dean of

SP Jain Institute of Management Re-

search (SPJIMR).

The NEP looks at the complete

chain of education in India, from pri-

mary schools to higher educational

institutions. It suggests the creation

of a Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog or Na-

tional Education Commission. It

also says that all higher educational

institutes (HEIs) should evolve into

one of three types of institutions:

research universities (Type 1), teach-

ing universities (Type 2) and colleges

(Type 3). It wants the current “com-

plex nomenclature” of ‘deemed to

be university’, ‘affiliating university’,

‘unitary university’ and others to be

phased out and replaced with public,

private or private-aided; and as mul-

tidisciplinary research universities or

comprehensive teaching universities.

“The overall attempt is to make a

transformative change and not an in-

cremental change, which is welcome,”

says Sekar Viswanathan, Vice Presi-

dent, Vellore Institute of Technology

(VIT). One example is the focus on

“streamlining the authority architec-

ture”. The draft sees merit in “creating

an overarching body that will syner-

gise and integrate the multiple efforts

that are in progress in widely diverse

institutions and departments of the

government both at the central and

state levels”.

A major step suggested is the in-

tent to equate private sector with pub-

lic sector for funding purposes, says

Viswanathan. As per the draft, private

HEIs will be encouraged to develop

S

Key Measures Proposed

• Emphasis on taking a longer term
  view of skills to be developed
  (versus being job-ready)


• Stress on faculty development
  and autonomy in curriculum
  development


• Creation of a National Research
  Foundation to focus on funding
  research within the education
  system


• Simplified categories of
  institutions and streamlined
  university nomenclature


• Removal of multiplicity in authority

The Challenges

• Estimating the funding required to
  cover the policy’s provisions – fee
  waivers and scholarships; high-
  quality, free education for all in the
  three-six years age group; access
  to connected personal computing
  devices, and more


• Attracting the best talent to
  teaching, and freedom to fix
  remuneration, especially in
  government institutions


• Addressing the complex
  admission architecture to make
  India a global hub of education

NATIONAL

EDUCATION

POLICY

August 25 I 2019 I BUSINESS TODAY I 89