Page 42 - EW November 2024

Cover Story

nation’s plural cultural tradition, and planting the seeds of General Election. In the 13th General Election called by the
intolerance and discord in the minds of hundreds of thou- NDA government in April-May 2004, the BJP-led NDA suf-
sands of impressionable young students in classrooms of fered a shock defeat with the imperious Union HRD minis-
the country”. ter Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi failing in his bid for re-election
from the university town of Allahabad.
Academic freedom with fetters. On Au- Congress-led UPA government. Following the unexpected
gust 14, in Islamic Academy vs Union of electoral rout of the BJP, a Congress-led United Progres-
India, a five-judge bench of the Supreme sive Alliance (UPA) government was sworn in on May 22
Court “clarified” the TMA Pai judgement in Delhi. In its Common Minimum Programme announced
and whittled down the right conferred on May 28, the UPA pledged to increase spending on public
upon unaided college managements to determine admis- education to 6 percent of GDP, impose a cess on all Central
sions and fix tuition fees. The apex court decreed the estab- taxes to “universalise access to quality basic education”, and
lishment of state-level committees chaired by retired high reverse the creeping communalisation of school syllabuses
court judges to determine if admissions to private unaided and texts.
professional education were made on merit, and if tuition EW comment. EW welcomed the intent of the new UPA
fees they levied were reasonable. government to increase national spending on education
EW comment. This dilution of the TMA Pai judgement and “de-saffronise” school textbooks, advising it “to tread
was criticised in a cover story titled ‘Freedom with fetters: carefully”.
Supreme Court’s new fiat on professional education’ (EW
September 2003). “The court has increased bureaucratic National Curriculum Framework. The
discretion and consequent corruption by allowing state Congress-led UPA government released
governments to fix the management quota of each private the National Curriculum Framework
college,” wrote your editors. (NCF) for School Education 2005. The
outcome of a mountain of labour spread
Assault on IIMs/ IITS. On February 5, over ten months of 21 national focus
Union HRD minister Dr. Murli Manohar groups chaired by well-known scientist Prof. Yash Pal, NCF
Joshi issued a terse five-paragraph or- 2005 recommended a revised curriculum for schools to
der directing discourage rote learning; make curriculums holistic rather
all six Indian than textbook-centric and reduce the stress of terminal ex-
Institutes of aminations.
Management (IIMs) to slash EW comment. In a lead feature (July), while lauding NCF
tuition-cum-residence fees pay- 2005 for being brilliantly written and “connecting knowl-
able by students admitted in the edge to life outside the school; ensuring that learning is
new academic year (2004-05) shifted away from rote methods; enriching the curriculum
by 80 percent from Rs.1.3-1.75 to provide for overall development of children rather than
lakh to a uniform Rs.30,000 remain textbook-centric, and making examinations more
per year. Earlier, Joshi had tar- flexible and integrated with classroom life”, we criticised it
geted the country's seven Indian for fudging the vital question of the resource mobilisation
Institutes of Technology (IITs) effort required to implement its recommendations.
ordering them to route all alumni donations through a gov- Quota cloud over private schools. Earlier in June in a draft
ernment constituted Bharatiya Shiksha Khosh trust. Right to Education Bill, 2005, a special committee chaired
EW comment. Our cover story ‘OUTRAGE! Joshi’s IIM-grab by legal luminary Kapil Sibal recommended that 25 percent
angers middle class India’ (EW March) joined the storm of of capacity in elementary education (class I-VIII) in private
protest from industry, academia and students against this schools should be reserved for
diktat. “The minister's tinkering with the proven structures poor children in their neigh-
and processes of the IITs and IIMs which have acquired bourhoods.
global reputations for the high quality of problem-solving EW comment. In our cover
engineers and managers they produce, has proved particu- story ‘Quota cloud over private
larly galling for the nation's upwardly mobile urban middle schools’ (September 2005), we
class which highly values quality education, and has pro- warned this government quota
voked a declaration of war… The ministerial order is clearly would become the thin end of
a case of arbitrary and irrational exercise of power,” wrote a wedge for incremental gov-
your editors while recommending the IITs/ IIMs to “reduce ernment interference in the
their dependence on government and evolve into self-gov- administration and operations
erning independent institutions”. of India’s private schools and

42 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2024