Page 12 - EW August 2021

Education News

DELHI ter Nirmala Sitharaman’s subsequent
Modest new hopes piece-meal relief packages. Totally

ignorant of Inglish, the link language
of India, by insisting on Hindi as
the lingua franca of the ministry,
he antagonised non-Hindi speaking
bureaucrats from southern states
working in the ministry. Moreover,
he embarrassed the government and
academia by holding forth on mythi-
cal scientific achievements of ancient
India in national and foreign forums
(see p.82). Intellectually ill-equipped
and indecisive, he presided over the
longest total shutdown of all schools,
colleges, universities and educa-
tion institutes (because of the Covid
pandemic) in Indian history during
his two-year term in Shastri Bhavan,
Delhi.
“Ever since the days of Kapil
New Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan: better history & reputation Sibal, Union education ministers
have behaved as if they are ‘higher
he reconstitution of the union Yuva Morcha (BJP youth wing), education’ ministers. An obsession
council of ministers on July has emerged as an important next with IITs, IIMs, Central universities,
T7 witnessed the induction of generation leader of the ruling party institutions of national importance,
36 new ministers and 12, including at the Centre. and on entrance tests to the coveted
several party heavyweights, dropped, The education ministers of state medical, engineering and manage-
taking the effective strength of the are Rajkumar Ranjan Singh ment institutions has preoccupied
council to 78, just three short of from a royal clan of Manipur, an the ministry for well over a decade...
the maximum permitted 81. In this educationist who worked for unity School education, increasingly on the
reshuffle, both Union ministers of among the various tribes in the state; fringe of policy attention, has slipped
education (Ramesh Pokhriyal and Annapurna Devi, former minister further from public discourse. The
junior minister Sanjay Dhotre) lost of women and child development pandemic has accentuated the
their jobs. A new team headed by of the Jharkhand state government process of ‘educide’, slow but sure
Dharmendra Pradhan has been and Dr. Subhas Sarkar, a gynae- murder of educational opportuni-
entrusted with the tricky job of giv- cologist and important leader of the ties that has been happening for
ing Indian education a makeover by West Bengal unit of the BJP, which quite some time. This must occupy
implementing the new National Edu- although it failed to oust Mamata the new minister’s attention,” writes
cation Policy (NEP), 2020 presented Banerjee and the TMC government Prof. Yogendra Yadav in The
to the nation by Pokhriyal on July 29 in the recently concluded legislative Print (July 14).
last year. assembly election, has emerged as Meanwhile, prime minister Modi’s
Besides, Pradhan, promoted from the largest opposition party in the decision to bring skills under the
the Union ministry of petroleum and state. purview of the education ministry
natural gas and steel, there are three This strong team replaces a min- has been widely welcomed, not least
ministers of state for education. istry headed by Hindi pulp fiction because Pradhan is well-aware of the
Moreover, Pradhan has also been al- writer Pokhriyal, who during his national skills education deficit hav-
located the skills education ministry two-year term proved an embarrass- ing served as a junior skills minister
making him the first education-cum- ment for the BJP and the country. for 15 months. Moreover as a youth
skills minister of the country. An During his tenure as education leader, he recognises the importance
anthropology graduate of Utkal Uni- minister, he conspicuously failed of skills development to address the
versity, Odisha, Pradhan, a former to get any allocation for education country’s burgeoning unemployment
national secretary of ABVP — the from the prime minister’s reportedly problem.
students’ wing of the BJP — and a Rs.20,000 crore pandemic relief “In terms of being focused and
former president of Bharatiya Janata package, or any from finance minis- getting things done, he has a better

12 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2021