Page 8 - EW April 2023

Editorial

PARLIAMENT & BROKEN WINDOWS MESSAGE Court appointed an expert six-mem-
ber committee chaired by a retired
apex court judge to investigate the
requent disruption of the busi- and commission of the ruling BJP. charges made against Adani, a probe
ness of Parliament is giving In- On the other hand, Congress mem- the latter has welcomed.
Fdia a bad image abroad and per- bers are also guilty of the impasse in In the circumstances, the conduct
haps worse, domestically. For instance Parliament by demanding a JPC (joint of the BJP and Congress members
at the time of writing this editorial, in parliamentary commission) enquiry to repeatedly stall parliamentary
the Budget session of Parliament dur- into the alleged “closeness” of busi- business and raise ruckus in both
ing which the Union Budget 2023-24 ness tycoon Gautam Adani, accused of houses by storming the well of the
was presented the expenditure priori- influencing government policy, stock house is highly reprehensible and
ties of the Rs.45 lakh crore budget of price manipulation and fraud by Hin- condemnable. It sends out a “broken
the Central government in the forth- denburg Research, a self-confessed windows” message through society.
coming fiscal year have not been dis- US-based short-seller firm which has First researched and developed by
cussed and debated. For several years benefited mightily by driving down American academics James Q. Wil-
this publication has questioned as to the market prices of several Adani son and George Kelling in 1982, and
why the Centre’s allocation for pub- Group companies. highlighted by best-selling writer Mal-
lic education as a percentage of GDP Not to mince words, the conten- colm Gladwell in his book The Tipping
has continuously declined. This issue tions of both parties verge on the Point: How Little Things Can make a
should be debated in Parliament and ridiculous. In this new age of the in- Big Difference (2002), Broken Win-
the government is obliged to justify its ternet and real-time global communi- dows theory posits that visible mani-
expenditure priorities. cations, whether an individual makes festations of crime, anti-social behav-
Instead, Lok Sabha proceedings a statement on foreign or domestic iour and civil disorder at the top create
have come to a standstill because the soil has become irrelevant. Likewise an environment that encourages wide-
treasury benches want Rahul Gan- the Congress party’s insistence on a spread anti-social behaviour because
dhi (since a disqualified former MP) parliamentary JPC to investigate the it sends out a message that nobody’s
to apologise for opining on “foreign charges made by Hindenburg against in charge. A constantly unruly Parlia-
soil”, that Indian democracy is being Adani have been rendered redundant, ment sends out this anarchic message
steadily eroded by acts of omission because on March 2 the Supreme countrywide.

TIME TO END HIGHER ED INFANTILISATION also recommends selection of indi-
viduals of “unimpeachable integrity”
to regulate education in a “light but
he resignation of bhushan Pat- creditation. It lacks credibility. tight manner”, as the NAAC scandal
wardhan, executive committee Patwardhan’s exposure of deep- indicates, these individuals don’t ex-
Tchairperson of the National As- rooted corruption within NAAC comes ist and/or are likely to misuse their
sessment and Accreditation Council at a fortuitous time, when the country power in office.
(NAAC, estb.1994), on March 5 has is in the process of implementing the Quite clearly, implementation of
opened up a can of worms and aroused new NEP 2020. Enlightened and con- NEP 2020 has arrived at a fork in the
fears relating to smooth implementa- temporary, NEP 2020 which inter alia road. The supervisory superstructure
tion of the National Education Policy mandates integration of early child- recommended by the KR Committee
(NEP) 2020. In his resignation let- hood and skills education into formal and incorporated into NEP 2020 has
ter to University Grants Commission schooling, and internationalisation of to be jettisoned in favour of institu-
chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar, Pat- higher education has — as repeatedly tional autonomy also mandated by
wardhan alleged that “vested interests highlighted by your editors — a funda- the policy. A major reason why In-
and malpractices” had enabled some mental contradiction. dia’s HEIs have not attained world-
higher education institutions (HEIs) On the one hand, it recommends class standards is over-regulation
to obtain “questionable grades”. gradual progress towards full auton- by government bureaucracy and in-
Monitors of India’s HEIs are sur- omy for all HEIs, but on the other it fantalisation of highly qualified and
prised that it has taken so long for mandates establishment of numerous experienced educators in the major-
NAAC’s shoddy “malpractices” to supervisory bodies — Higher Educa- ity of the country’s colleges and uni-
come to light. The reality that high tion Council of India supported by versities.
grades and rating can be purchased four verticals, viz, National Higher With media and other indepen-
for money and inducements from Education Regulation Council, Na- dent organisations and market repu-
NAAC and AICTE (which regulates tional Accreditation Council (suc- tation determining the progress and
engineering and technical colleges) cessor of NAAC), Higher Education advancement of HEIs, institutional
has been well-known for years if not Grants Council and General Education autonomy seems the best bet for the
decades. This explains why despite Council to regulate, accredit, fund and future of Indian higher education. Es-
NAAC being of 27 years vintage, only set learning outcome standards. And pecially with the emergence of a large
9,062 colleges (out of 43,796 country- although the Kasturirangan Commit- and growing number of private uni-
wide) and a mere 418 universities (out tee Report which recommended this versities which are setting globally ac-
of 1,113) have signed up for NAAC ac- elaborate regulatory superstructure cepted standards in higher education.

8 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2023