K S S Seshan
Revival of Education Sector : The education sector has suffered such a damage that it will take a considerable time for the system to win back public
The statement by the new minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, that his priority is to address the question of major quality deficit and the dipping learning processes at the school level, is highly gratifying.
Also, his contemplation to hold annual assessment surveys across the country to develop a sound question paper designed for higher secondary classes, social auditing of how much the child manages to learn from classroom teaching etc, are sure to give a boost to the educational management in the states.
At a time when the education sector appears sidelined, the slew of measures the ministry wants to initiate may revive its lost prominence. During the first few Five Year Plans immediately after Independence, education was given the pride of place by successive governments at the Centre.
There were stalwarts like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, K L Srimali, M C Chagla, V K R V Rao, Humayun Kabir, Nurul Hassan, Karan Singh and others who manned the education ministry. They were not only political leaders but were also committed to the field of education. They ministered the sector with ability and provided much-needed inspiration to every one connected with the sector in ensuring quality education at all levels.
By early 1990s, with an increased number of IITs, IIMs, Central universities and other technical, scientific and research institutions in the country, it was felt that the term education was limited in its scope and significance. As the objective of the government was to provide all the necessary life skills for the comprehensive development of the country’s youth, the all inclusive name, “Ministry of Human Resource Development” (MHRD) replaced “Ministry of Education.”
Incidentally, there were well-meaning HRD ministers, some being educators themselves, who provided leadership in the country’s educational policies. P V Narasimha Rao, as the first HRD minister, for example, established the most innovative Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) to provide quality education exclusively to bright rural children who otherwise could not afford admission into corporate schools. These Navodaya residential schools, one in each district all over the country except in a few states like West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have been very successful.
The HRD ministers after Rao, such as K Shiv Shankar, Arjun Singh, S R Bommai and Murali Manohar Joshi also did not neglect education, though Joshi unsuccessfully tried to tinker with the NCERT history textbooks written by well-known scholars like Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, Bipan Chandra and others. While the change in the name did not prove to be any catalyst for fresh schemes for development of human faculties, importance to education, obviously, was relegated to the background.
Higher education, a mockery: In the past two years since the NDA came to power, under the controversial tenure of Smriti Irani as the HRD minister, which suddenly came to an end in the recent reshuffle of the Union cabinet, the credibility of the ministry reached its lowest ebb. The minister was in news most of the time for wrong reasons.
There was a persistent effort to undermine the smooth functioning of institutions of higher learning. Political interference became the order of the day. Central universities were the first to bear the brunt. New regulations in the name of ‘reforms’ were contemplated with strange proposals such as: a) common admissions and common curriculum among all Central universities; b) inter-university mobility of students along with their credits/marks; c) faculty to have transfers to preferred universities etc. Such steps were sure to erode beyond repair the very autonomy of the universities.
There were instances of directors of a few IITs who did not fall in line with the minister being asked to leave. The attempts to scrap the teaching of German language in Central schools and to introduce Sanskrit in its place though drew a flak, were only indicative of the mindset of an unbridled and a novice minister with an eye on popularity ratings and political visibility, making the ministry an object of mockery in the process.
Student agitations
With a staggering 30 per cent of the country’s youth being below 35 years, one is left to marvel as to what the MHRD did for their “resource development.” The student agitations – particularly at the Jahawarlal Nehru University and the University of Hyderabad – the universities acclaimed for their academic excellence, in a way, laid bare the style of functioning of the minister.
The education sector as a whole suffered such a damage that it will take a considerable time for the system to win back public trust. The change of guard at the MHRD was a sigh of relief for every one connected with education in the country.
The new incumbent at the MHRD, immediately on taking charge, has assured the country that being a product of the student movement himself, he would be proactive towards the aspirations of the student community and that he would address their problems.
