Page 10 - EducationWorld June 2022_Neat

Editorial

INHERENT CONTRADICTION OF NEP 2020 universities which conduct common
examinations and certify graduates.
NEP 2020 expresses aspiration
LMOST TWO YEARS SINCE IT WAS Heavily influenced by a 484-page that undergrad colleges will transform
legislated in July 2020, the Na- report of the nine-member Kasturi- into autonomous, multidisciplinary,
Ational Education Policy (NEP) rangan Committee, NEP 2020 pro- degree awarding universities as they
2020 has gained little traction. The poses abolition of the apex-level Uni- are upgraded by NAC in a phased
outcome of high-powered committees versity Grants Commission and All manner. Other proposals of NEP 2020
chaired by former Union cabinet sec- India Council for Technical Educa- permitting reputed foreign universi-
retary the late TSR Subramanian and tion, which supervised and regulated ties to establish campuses in India,
space scientist Dr. K. Kasturirangan, arts, science and commerce and tech- and establishing a National Research
and three years in the making, NEP nical higher education for over half a Foundation remain in limbo.
2020 was presented to the nation after century, and their replacement by a In the end, the consensus of the
an interregnum of 34 years. single Higher Education Council of learned panelists was that the inher-
Slow traction in implementing India (HECI). Under HECI, the policy ent contradiction in NEP 2020 be-
NEP 2020 was highlighted during the mandates establishment of a National tween greater regulation and institu-
EducationWorld India Higher Educa- Higher Education Regulation Council, tional autonomy should be resolved in
tion Rankings Awards 2022-23 func- National Accreditation Council (NAC), favour of the latter option. Quite sim-
tion staged in Delhi NCR on May 28. Higher Education Grants Council and ply, the State is bankrupt of the hu-
Two panel discussions — ‘NEP 2020: a General Education Council to regu- man and financial resources required
Roadblocks to Implementation’ and late (“light but tight”), accredit, fund to establish the regulatory superstruc-
‘Will NEP 2020 Flexibility Provisions and set academic and skill standards. ture mandated by NEP 2020.
Dilute Higher Education?’ — featuring Somewhat contradictorily after Revival and renaissance of higher
vice chancellors and principals of the mandating this elaborate structure for education needs to be entrusted to
country’s premier higher education regulating the country’s 41,000 un- academics and institutional manage-
institutions, reported status quo and dergrad colleges and 1,043 public and ments without interference from gov-
lack of urgency in implementing NEP private universities, NEP 2020 pro- ernment. The regulatory system has
2020, which mandates radical reform poses abolition of the current system been tried and tested, and has failed.
of the country’s fast-obsolescing edu- under which most undergrad colleges More of the same is a prescription for
cation system. are affiliated and governed by parent stagnation and mediocrity.

JUDGES SHOULD NOT PANDER TO BJP LEADERSHIP churches of the vanquished and build
mosques and sectarian churches to
signal battlefield victories and terri-
HE SPATE OF LAWSUITS BEING FILED Against this dismal backdrop, the torial conquest. Few historians dis-
in courts countrywide by Hindu last thing the country and economy pute that Mughal emperor Aurang-
Tzealots and sangh p arivar out- need are communal violence and zeb (1618-1707) was an unapologetic
fits questioning the titles of Muslim breakdown of law and order that’s religious bigot who destroyed numer-
wakf properties on which religious certain to slow the economic recovery ous Hindu temples and constructed
mosques — some of them several process. In Uttar Pradesh, a writ peti- mosques on their foundations. The
centuries old — have been built, has tion filed by five pious Hindu women Places of Worship Act, 1991 which
the potential of inflaming religious demanding a judicial directive to the freezes the character of temples,
passions and igniting rioting and management of the vintage Gyanvapi mosques and churches at their status
mayhem which will destabilise the Mosque in Varanasi, to permit wor- on August 15, 1947, should be the final
social order and derail the country’s ship at a site within the mosque where word on this issue.
post-pandemic economic recovery a shivling, a sacred Hindu symbol, has With elections looming in several
momentum. been found, is being heard by a dis- states including Karnataka and Guja-
It’s pertinent to bear in mind that trict court in the holy city. Not entirely rat, the clear intent of the BJP ruling
for the first time in the history of post- coincidentally, several title suits filed at the Centre and its affiliate sangh
independence India, GDP growth by Hindu plaintiffs against mosque parivar outfits is to arouse hatred
contracted by 6.6 percent in fiscal committees elsewhere claim mosques against the minority Muslim com-
2020-21. Although in 2021-22 it re- were built on ruins of Hindu temples munity for historical injustices rooted
covered to 8.7 percent, this recovery and therefore, the right, title and in- in the distant past, and consolidate
is on the low base of the previous year. terest of the land should revert to lat- the Hindu majority vote behind the
Moreover because of Russia’s Ukraine ter day Hindu worshippers. BJP. It is dismaying that despite the
war, which has sky-rocketed crude oil However learned justices of the clear directive of the Constitution to
prices and driven up foodgrains cost, bench should bear in mind that in the judiciary to safeguard the secular
GDP growth in the current fiscal is ancient times when people were less and egalitarian character of demo-
unlikely to exceed 7.5 percent even educated and more intolerant of other cratic India, some judges and courts
as unemployment and inflation have castes, creed and cultures, it was nor- are pandering to the BJP leadership
crossed the 7 percent and 7.8 percent mative for triumphant victors, and whose patent intent is to divide and
plimsoll lines. conquerors to demolish temples and rule India in perpetuity.

10 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2022