Page 45 - EW July 2022

Cover Story

Dharmendraji’s obstinate silence

ne of the major failures of the BJP government at the 2. Sir, in your opinion what are the most important reforms
OCentre is conspicuous reluctance to prepare the ground proposed by NEP 2020?
for implementation of its reforms and policies. For instance, 3. One of the most important reforms proposed by NEP 2020
demonetisation, overdue farm reform bills and the Agnipath is its stress on universal early childhood care and education
armed services recruitment scheme. By failing to discuss and (ECCE) and its integration with primary education. How satis-
debate its often excellent reform legislation, the BJP leadership fied are you with progress on this front?
provokes public confusion and anger and repeatedly shoots 4. Children in primary education were worst hit by the lock-
itself in the foot. down of schools countrywide for 82 weeks because of the
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 presented to the Covid-19 pandemic. What strategy has the Union educa-
country after an interregnum of 34 years, proposes to compre- tion ministry devised to make good the huge learning loss of
hensively restructure and revolutionise Indian education from primary-secondary children?
pre-primary to Ph D. Yet neither Union education 5. Complex procedures to establish greenfield
minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal who presented NEP schools and regulation of tuition fees by govern-
2020 to Parliament and the nation on July 29, 2020, ment-appointed committees at unrealistic levels
nor incumbent minister Dharmendra Pradhan have is a major complaint of private schools. When
seriously explained and defended NEP 2020 in the can one expect liberalisation and deregulation
media. Both incumbents of Shastri Bhavan, Delhi of Indian education?
have steadfastly declined to speak with Educa- 6. Media reports indicate that your ministry has
tionWorld, India’s pioneer and premier education permitted prominent British private schools in-
newsmagazine (estb.1999). cluding Eton and Harrow to establish campuses
Quite obviously, the minister believes that he in India. To what extent are these reports ac-
is answerable only to the prime minister and perhaps RSS curate?
headquarters in Nagpur. One wonders why he declined to 7. In higher education, UGC recently notified that all duly
answer the following innocuous questions emailed to him by accredited universities are permitted to conclude twinning,
your editors followed up with numerous email and telephone joint and dual degrees with Top 100 ranked foreign universi-
entreaties to his office. I leave it to readers to decide if the let- ties. What is the government policy about foreign universities
ter and questions reproduced below are tricky and/or hostile. establishing campuses in India?
“ Dear Dharmendraji: On the second anniversary of presenta- 8. Your ministry’s SARTHAQ document affirms that in NEP

2020, there will be a “separation of functions — standards set-
tion of the National Education Policy 2020 to Parliament and
the nation, EducationWorld is writing a cover story under the ting, funding, accreditation, and regulation will be conducted
working title ‘NEP 2020: Policy Implementation Report 2022.’ by independent bodies to eliminate conflicts of interest”. What
I believe the public interest would be greatly served if you is the progress in setting up these independent bodies?
would kindly respond to the following questions preferably in 9. In its election manifesto, the BJP promised to raise the
a Zoom interview or in writing. annual national outlay for education to 6 percent of GDP.
1. Two years after NEP 2020 was presented to Parliament and Currently, it is 3.5 percent. When is this promise likely to be
the country, how satisfied are you with its implementation fulfilled?
”
progress? 10. Any other comment?

to rewrite history and attain political tatives of “unimpeachable integrity”, cadres massively infiltrated education
objectives rather than improve learn- past experience indicates that these institutions and almost totally ruined
ing outcomes. supervisory organisations will be them. The ruination of Bengal’s higher
The fatal flaw of NEP 2020 is that dominated by ruling party ideologues education system notable for its excel-
instead of making a clean break with and faithfuls with dubious academic lent colleges and universities, offers a
the past, it reinforces government credentials who could push the coun- chilling example of what could be in
control and guidance of education try’s already failing public education store for India’s faltering education
across the spectrum from pre-primary system in particular, into a morass. system in years to come.
to university levels. Although the Kas- In this connection, the rule of the The greatest infirmity of NEP
turirangan Committee recommended Communist Party of India-Marxist 2020 is that its authors are firm in
that the numerous supervisory bodies (CPM) over the state of West Bengal their belief that more rather than less
such as SSSA, HECI, NHERC, NAS, for 34 years (1977-2011) is instructive. government control and direction of
NAC etc should be chaired and filled During those fateful decades, ill-qual- the education system is necessary and
with academics and public represen- ified Marxist intellectuals and party non-negotiable. Therefore, the policy

44 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2022