Page 47 - EW July 2024

BJP/NDA government's Education Report Card (2014-2024)

PASS FAIL

National Education Policy approved (2020) Public spending on education as % of GDP declined
from 3.1 percent in 2013-14 to 2.9 percent in 2022-23

NCF for the Foundational Stage presented (2022) NCERT textbooks rewritten sloppily
National Research Foundation not established despite
NCF for School Education rolled out (2023) being announced in consecutive Union budget speeches

Higher Education Commission of India Bill yet to be
Foreign university campuses greenlight (2023) tabled in Parliament
Digital University announced in Union Budget
New higher ed institutions including IITs, 2022-23, yet to be established.
IIMs & AIIMS established (2015-2019)
Decline in teenage students' learning outcomes reported
National Testing Agency established (2017) by ASER 2023 and the government’s NAS 2021
Faculty shortages — 40 percent of teaching posts
Higher Education Financing Agency (2017) in the IITs, 31 percent in IIMs and 30 percent
in Central universities vacant

National Credit Framework finalised (2023) 48.75 percent of college/university graduates are unemploy-
able (India Skills Report)
India Skill Mission promoted (2015) Only 4.69 percent of the total workforce in India
is formally skilled (TeamLease)

NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading Snail-paced progress on liberalization and deregulation of
with Understanding and Numeracy) rolled out (2021) school and higher education

autonomy and a government super- nately ab initio since independence, and newfangled technologies.
visory framework of the trust and adequate care has not been taken Therefore the first Union educa-
verify model. The basic presumption by government leaders to select suf- tion minister appointed by the BJP
of NEP 2020 formulators that lead- ficiently qualified and experienced government after it swept to power in
ers of schools and HEIs need detailed academics to lead supervisory bodies New Delhi in 2014 was television soap
guidance, prescriptions and careful such as UGC, NAAC, AICTE, NCERT opera star Smriti Irani who falsely
supervision from government-man- and Vice Chancellors of public uni- declared she had a university degree.
aged regulatory bodies to improve versities. She was followed in Shastri Bhavan,
learning outcomes and institutional This is especially true of the BJP Delhi by Prakash Javadekar and
reputation, is flawed and is likely to government which has been ruling Ramesh Pokriyal, both former RSS
transform NEP 2020 into yet another at the Centre since 2014. A substan- karyakartas. In turn, they appointed
visionary education reform policy tial number of its selected academics intellectual lightweights to important
prescription doomed to falter at the appointed to high office in education education institutions such as ICHR,
implementation hurdle. supervisory and institutional offices UGC, NCERT, JNU and most recently
The natural tendency of political are ideologues of the RSS (Rashtriya NCERT.
parties that win general and state Swayamsevak Sangh), the ideological The depleted intelligentsia bench
elections is to appoint party sup- mentor organization of the BJP whose strength of the BJP government is
porters to positions of authority in top priority is rediscovery of India’s highlighted by the puerile state-
government. However, care has to be ancient history and glories of Hindu ments of Dinesh Saklani, Direc-
taken that they have sufficient expe- kingdoms of the pre-Mughal era. It’s tor of NCERT (National Council for
rience beyond paper qualifications, a matter of common knowledge that Educational Research & Training),
to discharge the obligations of office. the RSS which owns and manages the country’s largest school textbooks
This is especially true of institutions 24,000 primary-secondary schools publisher. Recently Saklani justified
and panels appointed to monitor and and several HEIs countrywide, has description of the Babri Masjid, a
guide education institutions. Unfortu- little patience with ‘Western’ science 16th century mosque in Uttar Pradesh

JULY 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 47