Page 48 - EW July 2024

Cover Story

(on whose foundations the new Ram
Mandir has been constructed) which
was destroyed in 1992 by Hindu ex-
tremists, as a “three-dome structure”
brought down by “unknown people” in
a class XII CBSE social science text-
book, which also omitted all reference
to riots that broke out countrywide
as a consequence. “Why should we
teach about riots in school textbooks?
We want to create positive citizens,
not violent and depressed individu-
als,” said Saklani in a media interview
(June 16). Ironically Prof. Saklani who
has no compunctions about casually
rewriting history, is a history postgrad
(D. Phil) of the obscure HNB Garhwal
University, Uttarakhand, appointed
chairman of NCERT in 2022. CBSE-affiliated school children: ideological textbook omissions
U NDER PRESSURE FROM outer space research scientist with overhauling and modernising Indian

the RSS to appoint ideo-
logically aligned light-
teaching and administration. In the
But Pradhan’s dilemma is to pick and
weight academics to no experience of higher education education from preschools to Ph D.
head think-tanks and academic in- circumstances, it’s unsurprising that choose priorities from within NEP
stitutions since it was swept to power they presented the government an 2020, and to resolve its basic contra-
at the Centre a decade ago, the BJP NEP 2020 draft which recommends diction between greater government
government has sown seeds of confu- a major supervisory and policy for- control and institutional autonomy,
sion if not chaos, in Indian education. mulation role for government despite both of which NEP 2020 mandates.
According to several respected retired the experience of past decades clearly Despite this contradiction in NEP
academics, recently appointed vice indicating that lack of institutional 2020, the consensus of informed opin-
chancellors of Delhi, JNU, Nalanda autonomy and government control- ion is that the new policy contains sev-
and some IITs have been selected for and-command of education across eral intelligent solutions for overdue
their ideological affinity to the BJP the spectrum, has levelled down upgradation and improvement of 21st
rather than academic merit. More- school and higher education in post- century India’s obsolete education
over, there’s emerging evidence that independence India. system, where the clear stream of
NTA (National Testing Agency), which It's at this inflection point in na- reason has lost its way in the dreary
is at the heart of the recent NEET-UG tional development when a national desert sand of dead habit.
and CSIR-UGC-NET entrance exams consensus has emerged that absolute As recounted above and endorsed
scandals, is not a subsidiary of the priority has to be accorded to real edu- by nationally respected early years
Union education ministry as popu- cation and skilling of the world’s larg- educator Dr. Swati Popat Vats, the
larly believed, but an independent so- est population of children and youth FLN and NIPUN documents inspired
ciety awarded the contract to conduct if India is to ever attain the status of a by NEP 2020, have provided a good
national entrance exams by the BJP middle class nation — today every po- roadmap for high quality ECCE (early
government at the Centre. Evidently, litical commentator and media pundit childhood care and education). Prad-
the agency was not sufficiently vetted includes education modernization and han’s top priority in this segment
for the efficiency and probity of per- skilling in her to-do prescription for should be to solicit the cooperation of
sonnel. national development — and achieve state governments to implement and
In this connection, it’s also perti- its Viksit Bharat and $30 GDP goal of roll out FLN and NIPUN to provide
nent to note that the nine-member 2047, that Dharmendra Prasad begins India’s 165 million children under
Dr. Kasturiranagan Committee, whose his second innings in Shastri Bhavan, five years of age a solid foundation for
report forms the basis of NEP 2020, Delhi. There’s general acceptance that future learning.
comprised eight members of obscure NEP 2020 formulated after a hiatus In K-12 education, the deep-rooted
second grade public universities, and of 34 years and 19 months in the writ- infirmity is that government (Centre
Dr. K’Rangan himself is a former ing, offers a workable blueprint for plus states) not only owns and man-

48 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2024