National Education Policy OPINION
DO WE NEED A POLICY
OR AN ACTION PLAN?
Anil Swarup, former Secretary, School Education, examines the proposals for improving
quality of education and implementation of 4-year B.Ed course...
ANIL SWARUP,
Former Secretary,
School Education,
MHRDA
committee, headed by Dr. K
Kasturirangan, was constituted
by Government of India a cou-
ple of years ago to prepare a
draft of the NEP. This committee has
submitted a draft that has been placed
for comments in the public domain.
When the NDA had come to power in
2014, a committee, headed by late T S R
Subramanian, was constituted to work
on a policy. This committee too had
submitted its report but has not seen
the light of the day. So, we now have two
reports with the government. Only time
will tell whether and when we will have
a new education policy.
The moot point, however, is whether
we require a new education policy, or
considering the diversity of the country,
is there need for a well-defined action
plan for each state, clearly outlining
what needs to be done, how will it be
done, who will do it and by when it will
be done to provide quality education to
every child in the country? Now that the
draft has been put in the public domain,
let us look at the salient aspects and
their relevance in the context of improv-
ing the quality of education.
Pre-school education
One of the welcome recommendations
relates to inclusion of pre-school edu-
cation as it is well established that the
initial years of a child are critical for his
overall development. But this is nothing
new. Such provisions have already been
incorporated in ‘Samagra Shiksha’ that
was launched a-year-and-a-half ago.
The new scheme sought to amalgam-
ate the ongoing ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhi-
yan (SSA)’ and ‘Rashtriya Madhyamik
Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)’, apart from
extending eligibility under the scheme
to pre-school education and classes 11
and 12 that were hitherto not available
for these segments.Focus on teachers
The focus on the teacher has been
talked about for a while. The teacher is
the pivot of school education. The draft
reiterates that. Various issues relating to
pre-service training, selection of teach-
ers and in-service upgradation of skills
have been highlighted in the report. All
these aspects are well known.The report should have gone into the
reasons for poor pre-service training
facilities in the country. There are a
large number of virtually non-existent
B.Ed. and D.El.Ed colleges that are
imparting training to the teachers. The
issues are known. The draft does little
to address these issues. There is wishful
thinking in the draft about recruitment
of teachers that is beset with scams but
doesn’t suggest any fool proof mecha-
nism to select teachers.Until and unless the teachers are
appropriately trained before they get
down to teaching and unless there is a
transparent recruitment of teachers in
government schools, not much is likely
to improve in delivering quality edu-
cation. Some states have indeed done
wonderful work in this regard. The
Draft Report should have mentioned
such examples that could be replicated
in other states.There are many problematic areas
where people used to make fun of the
system and advise me to pay appropri-
ately to get a degree and get a job by
paying even better. So, if you have teach-
ers who have not been trained appropri-
ately, the quality of teaching they offer
will be substandard.
Another area that needs to be
addressed is the selection process of
teachers which leaves a lot to be desired.
We’re all aware of the corruption levels
that have gone into selection in one of
the States where the ex-CM was put
behind bars for his role in a scandal. So,
training of teachers also leaves a lot to
be desired, both in terms of induction
training and service training, because
the whole system changes pretty fast
and the teachers have to be good to
impart education to the children.As part of in-service training of teach-
ers, the draft recognises the role that
“DIKSHA” (a portal already in place for
teachers) can play. DIKSHA has many
more features relating to teachers.
These should have been discussed in the