Page 38 - EW July 2022

Cover Story

and form in NEP 2020 also perturbs Measured by learning outcomes
Dr. C. Raj Kumar, the polymath metrics, India’s school children com-
(alum of Delhi, Oxford, Harvard, pare very poorly with their counter-
Hong Kong universities) founding vice parts around the world as testified
chancellor of the O.P. Jindal Global by poor PISA scores and the annual
University, Sonipat (JGU, estb.2009). ASER surveys published by the glob-
Within a decade of its promotion, ally-respected Pratham Education
JGU has rapidly established a global Foundation. Moreover, not a single
reputation and is ranked India’s #1 Indian university — some of whom
private university in the World Uni- were established 150 years ago — is
versity Rankings (WUR) of the highly- ranked among the global Top 200
respected, London-based varsity rat- in the World University Rankings
ing agency QS and is ranked India’s (WUR) league tables published an-
#1 private liberal arts and humanities nually by the authoritative London-
university in the EducationWorld based HEI srating agencies Quac-
India Private University Rankings quarelli Symonds (QS) and Times
2022-23. The point is that Raj Kumar Higher Education.
is a proven and highly knowledgeable Dr. C. Raj Kumar: implicit criticism Yet it’s an indicator of India’s deep-
higher education institution builder. cessful implementation of NEP 2020,” ly-rooted spirit of private enterprise
“ THE STRATEGY FOR effec- says Raj Kumar. and socialist judges of the Supreme
that despite official discouragement
tive implementation of NEP
Although he is too diplomatic to say
Court ruling that education provi-
2020 higher education re-
philanthropic vocation, over 450,000
government to actively involve private
forms must include the fol- so, implicit in Dr. Raj Kumar’s call to sion is necessarily a charitable and
lowing five components: monitoring universities in implementing NEP private schools have mushroomed
of policy implementation by the po- 2020 is criticism of pervasive preju- countrywide and are educating 119
litical leadership at the highest level of dice against private initiatives in edu- million in-school children. Likewise,
government; focus of Union education cation. This prejudice, which is rooted an estimated 25,000 private colleges
minister and his top team on unblock- in the foolish decision to transform and 700 private universities have over
ing bottlenecks and challenges imped- post-independence India that has a 20 million (of 35 million) youth on
ing implementation; UGC taking the several millennia tradition of private their muster rolls.
lead to bring all regulatory bodies and enterprise into a Soviet-inspired “so- Indeed, it is no exaggeration that
subject-based councils together to cialist pattern of society”, mandated the great majority of post-indepen-
implement the policy proposals; acti- tight government control of academia dence India’s 300 million middle
vating state governments and higher and education. Comprehensive con- class has been nurtured in private
education councils in the states to ef- trol-and-command of the academy for schools and HEIs. Despite this real-
fectively implement NEP 2020, and over seven decades through numer- ity, not even one private education
empowerment of AIU (Association of ous education regulatory authorities representative (except Dr. Manjul
Indian Universities) to work closely (UGC, AICTE, NAAC, NCTE, MCI etc) Bhargava who teaches math at Princ-
with vice chancellors of all universi- by ill-educated politicians and bureau- eton University, USA) was included in
ties to implement the policy. It’s also crats (aka the neta-babu brotherhood) the nine- member committee which
very important for government and mainly drawn from the socio-eco- wrote the 484-page Kasturirangan
the proposed HECI to bear in mind nomically backward Hindi heartland report whose recommendations have
that a large number of HEIs (higher states, has severely dumbed down the shaped NEP 2020. Unsurprisingly,
education institutions) are under the education system from pre-primaries the K’rangan Report (2019) and the
ownership and jurisdiction of state to research universities. NEP 2020 policy document is strewn
governments. Moreover, nearly 70 with prejudicial and censorious obi-
percent of India’s HEIs are in the pri- ter dicta against private education
vate sector and 70 percent of students Private universities were not providers.
are enrolled in private HEIs. There- involved in formulating NEP This prejudice endorsed by ill-
fore, the entire government machin- considered judicial pronouncements
ery, including the education ministry 2020 because of pervasive deploring “commercialisation of edu-
at the Centre needs to acknowledge prejudice against private cation” is shared by the influential
the critical role that state governments initiatives in education middle class which loves private edu-
and private HEIs have to play for suc- cation but (like electricity and piped

38 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2022