Page 44 - Education World September 2021

Cover Story

mer chairman of the Indian Space state governments capping fees levied
Research Organisation to provide a by private schools at unrealistically
new draft of the National Education low levels, and about s.19 of the RTE
Policy. Comprising senior and retired Act which stipulates impossible infra-
higher education academics with structure norms for private schools.
no representative of private schools This provision was deliberately in-
and colleges, although 48 percent of serted into the RTE Act to drive the
India’s in-school children are in pri- country’s estimated 400,000 budget
vate schools and 70 percent in pri- private schools (BPS), which are at-
vate higher education institutions, in tracting government school students
December 2018, the KR Committee by droves, out of business.
produced a “more government more Since membership of the KR Com-
governance” 484-page report. Inevi- mittee almost entirely comprised
tably, some commendable reforms senior and retired higher education
were proposed. Among them: strong academics, its recommendations for
emphasis on professionally adminis- restructuring and reforming the coun-
tered early childhood functional liter- try’s languishing higher education
acy and numeracy; division of govern- Kasturirangan: touching faith system which churns out millions of
ment’s role of provider, regulator and unemployable graduates every year,
assessor of school and higher educa- try’s highly politicised higher edu- are more promising.
tion. To this end, the KR Committee cation system, and the likelihood is The committee’s proposals of four-
recommended the establishment of that offices of profit in the proposed year undergrad degree programmes
separate institutions for regulating, regulatory bodies will be packed with with a foundational year of liberal arts
testing and accreditation of school acolytes and sympathisers of ruling learning for all study programmes;
and higher education institutions, a parties at the Centre and in the states. certified multiple exit and re-entry
Moreover, the anti-private educa-
proposal widely welcomed. tion prejudice of the KR Committee options and a system of credits to be
stored in a national ABC (academic
Y ET, THE FATAL FLAW report is evident in NEP 2020 which bank of credits) digital repository;
is beginning to be rolled out across the
phasing out the system of undergrad
of the KR Committee
as detailed in a 16-page
EW cover feature evalu- country. On the issue of state govern- colleges affiliating with parent uni-
versities, and graded autonomy for
ments regulating and adjudicating
ation of the KR Committee’s 484- school tuition and other fees — the undergrad colleges under a ‘light but
page report (EW, July 2019) was that biggest pain point of private school tight’ regulatory framework; estab-
it reposed touching faith in the bona managements — NEP 2020 is con- lishment of a National Research Foun-
fides and capabilities of educrats of spicuously silent. Ditto about “partial dation and permitting top-ranked for-
the Central and state governments backdoor nationalisation” of private eign universities to set up campuses
— who have miserably failed to de- schools effected through s.12 (1) (c) of in India have been widely welcomed
liver good quality education in the the RTE Act which obliges private day by academia. Moreover, an important
country’s 1.20 million government schools to reserve 25 percent capac- recommendation of the KR Commit-
primary-secondary schools and higher ity in elementary classes (I-VIII) for tee to separate the functions of regu-
education institutions for over seven poor children — as certified by state lation, accreditation, funding and
decades — to spearhead the ambitious and local governments — in their academic standards setting have also
reforms proposed by it. Somewhat neighbourhood. NEP 2020 is also si- been incorporated into NEP 2020.
naively, the KR Committee’s report lent about legislation enacted by most But one wonders who will man
recommended that numerous inde- these several regulatory authorities
pendent autonomous supervisory and Curiously the KR Committee and committees, and whether estab-
regulatory bodies chaired and staffed lishing four separate entities to regu-
by academics with excellent track re- members were/are late HEIs (higher education institu-
cords and “unimpeachable integrity” unaware that academics tions) won’t over-bureaucratise the
should be established by government with excellent records and system at a time when greater auton-
to reform and rejuvenate the country’s omy needs to be conferred upon the
school and higher education systems. “unimpeachable integrity” country’s rundown HEIs.
Curiously, the members of the are rare in the highly Implementing NEP 2020 which
committee were/are unaware that with its somewhat contradictory cur-
such individuals are rare in the coun- politicised higher ed system rents of driving institutional autono-

44 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021