Page 122 - EW November 2023

Special Report

Fee regulation fever: End of Aam Aadmi Party: Many Mahatma Gandhi’s prescription National Education Policy 2020:
the road for India’s top private hurdles of India’s most public can revive Indian education Visionary charter educracy
schools? education-friendly party On the 150th birth anni- shadow
A December 27 judgement Against the backdrop of versary of Mahatma Gan- On July 29, the much-
of the Gujarat high court indifference to education dhi, this cover story shone awaited National Educa-
upholding the Gujarat and human resource de- a spotlight on his nai talim tion Policy (NEP) 2020,
Self-Financed Schools velopment of all political education philosophy formulated after an
(Regulation of Fees) Act, parties across the ideo- which propounds that the interregnum of 34 years
2017 prescribing absurdly logical spectrum, the Aam heads, hearts and hands following the detailed
low fees ceilings for all Aadmi Party, which rules of children need to be recommendations of the
primary, secondary and Delhi state with a massive educated simultaneously. K. Kasturirangan Commit-
higher secondary schools, majority in the legislative All schools should devise tee, was presented to the
came as a thunderclap assembly, is an exception. curriculums blending aca- public. Our comprehensive
for private independent Unlike all other po- demics, skills development story analysed the 65-page
schools countrywide. In litical parties, education and moral character build- NEP 2020 and its recom-
this story, we reported on reform is a major issue in ing. This special Gandhi mendations from early
similar instances of state its electoral campaigns. sesquicentennial celebra- childhood to higher educa-
governments interfering Our story while lauding tion story argued that if tion. It concluded that the
with self-administration of AAP for making good its Gandhi’s prescription for policy is an amalgam of
private schools by impos- promise to rejuvenate K-12 education is officially high rhetoric clouded by
ing tuition fee ceilings and Delhi’s languishing public adopted, it could resus- implementation uncer-
warned that this could be K-12 education system, citate India’s moribund tainty, because it has
the beginning of the end criticised it for unwar- school education system. established too many
of India’s private indepen- ranted interference in (EW October 2019) supervisory committees.
dent schools. (EW Febru- the administration of the (EW August 2020)
ary 2018) state’s private schools.
(EW June 2019)

Dear Prime Minister, Why teachers associations But this SOS chorus fell
no pandemic package for petitioned the Central on deaf ears. Our cover
education? and state governments to feature questioned why
With the prolonged Co- urgently provide bridge the mega Rs.20.97 lakh
vid-19 pandemic lockdown finance, loans and/or crore Covid-19 economic
causing unprecedented grants to ensure learning aid package announced by
distress and turmoil in continuity of the country’s Prime Minister Narendra
Indian education, child 260 million school-going Modi totally ignored the
rights activists, K-12 children, of whom 47.5 pandemic-battered educa-
education leaders, private percent are in private tion sector. (EW October
school managements and schools. 2020)

122 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2023