Page 48 - March EW PDF 24

Cover Story

states and Union territories and an
independent State School Standards
Authority (SSSA) for setting stan-
dards for basic parameters (safety,
security, basic infrastructure, teacher
adequacy, financial probity and sound
processes of governance). This elabo-
rate governance architecture sits ill
at ease with promises of autonomy
and self-regulation made in the pol-
icy document and raises fears of in-
creased government supervision and
micro-management — rather than
liberalisation — of primary-secondary
education.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Cheerful college students: several NEP 2020 initiatives T HE HIGHER EDUCATION
sector has been a particu-
states allocate 10 percent of annual failure to improve the learning out- lar focus of reform/new
expenditure for education within ten comes of children in primary educa- initiatives of the BJP gov-
years. Like its predecessor govern- tion. Year after year, the Annual Sta- ernment during the past ten years.
ments, the BJP government — despite tus of Education Report published by Achievements (2014-24). Several
in its 2014 manifesto committing to the independent Pratham Education initiatives have been launched to im-
increase public spending on education Foundation, has been reporting that plement NEP 2020 mandates. They
to 6 percent of GDP — has failed to over half of class V children in primary include introduction of the four-year
deliver this promise. (see graph p.46). schools of rural India — which grudg- undergraduate programme; a national
Moreover, revision of school text- ingly hosts 60 percent of the national ABC (academic bank of credits) digital
books during the past decade has gen- population — can’t read class II texts repository to facilitate certified mul-
erated considerable controversy for or manage simple math sums. The tiple exit and re-entry options; phas-
alleged ‘saffronisation’ of education. latest ASER 2023 report released on ing out the system of undergrad col-
NCERT has initiated three rounds of January 17, which field tested 34,375 leges obliged to affiliate with a parent
revision in school textbooks over the teens in the 14-18 age group, reveals university, and notification of regula-
past ten years. In the last revision in that 25 percent cannot read a class tions permitting foreign universities
2022-23, NCERT was heavily criti- II level textbook fluently in their re- to establish brick-n-mortar campuses
cised for removing references to the gional language. in India. Deakin University, Australia
Mughal era, India’s caste system, Likewise, the government’s own inaugurated its campus in GIFT City,
the brief ban of the RSS (Rashtriya National Achievement Survey (NAS) Gujarat in early January becoming the
Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological 2021 confirms that learning levels first foreign university with a physical
mentor organisation of the BJP) in the of children are declining. According campus in India.
early years after independence, and to NAS 2021, students’ learning out- Over the past decade, there’s also
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. comes declined as they progressed to been an increase in the promotion
Additionally, several important higher classes. The national average in of new higher education institutions
milestones in independent India’s five subjects (English, maths, science, (HEIs) and capacity expansion. In
political history including the assas- social science and the dominant state her Union Budget 2024-25 speech to
sination of Mahatma Gandhi, the language) for which they were tested, Parliament, Nirmala Sitharaman re-
internal Emergency (1975-76), and reduced from 59 percent in class III vealed that between 2014-24, seven
the anti-Muslim riots (2002) in BJP- (in 2015) to 49 percent in class V, 41.9 new IITs (Indian Institutes of Tech-
ruled Gujarat state, have also been percent in class VIII and 37.8 percent nology), 16 IIITs (Indian Institutes
“tweaked” in textbooks printed by in class X. of Information Technology), 3,000
NCERT for Central government and Another disappointment is regula- ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes),
CBSE schools. tory reform. NEP 2020 recommends 390 universities, 15 AIIMS and seven
The other big disappointment is a complex regulatory structure headed IIMs, have been promoted. She also
the Modi government’s conspicuous by a Department of Education in all gave the Modi administration credit

48 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2024