Page 48 - EducationWorld Aug 2020 Flipbuilder

Cover Story

thor (India Unbound, The Difficulty of
Being Good) Gurcharan Das, in an
anguished op-ed critique of NEP 2020
in the Times of India (August 1).
The obstinate refusal of the pro-
fessedly ideologically right-wing BJP
government to permit straightfor-
ward for-profit schools and HEIs to
operate in India and to persist with
maintaining the fiction that private
schools are charitable institutions, is
an indicator of the extent to which so-
cialist command-and-control culture
has permeated all political parties of
post-independence India. Although
the licence-permit-quota regimen
has been considerably relaxed for In-
dian industry after the historic liber-
alisation and deregulation initiative of
1991, the education sector continues Private school students: laws, rules & regulations flood
to remain the happy hunting ground
of the neta-babu brotherhood on the Unfortunately, the clear reason- local language” the medium of instruc-
matter of teacher appointments in ing of the majority judgement in the tion “until at least Grade 5, but prefer-
government schools and HEIs, text- T.M.A. Pai Case was muddied by a ably until till Grade 8” in all primary
book printing rackets, teacher trans- smaller five-judge bench of the apex schools — public and private — across
fers and continuous shaking down of court in Islamic Academy vs. Union the country (para 4.11). This recom-
private school managements for real of India (2003), in which the court mendation made by the KR Commit-
and imagined infractions of thousands decreed establishment of committees tee reportedly to appease the super-
of highly discretionary rules and regu- chaired by retired judges in all states patriots of the RSS who haven’t yet
lations legislated by state and munici- to adjudicate whether the admission grasped the simple truth that English
pal governments. processes of private education insti- is the link language that binds India’s
22 linguistic states in which people
tutions are indeed fair and transpar-
C URIOUSLY, RIGID govern- ent, and determine whether the fees speak 278 dialects, and foolishly in-
corporated into NEP 2020, is clear
charged by them are reasonable.
ment control over private
This revisionist judgement of the
education institutions con-
tinues unabated despite Supreme Court served to encour- proof that the babus of Shastri Bha-
van, Delhi (HQ of the Union education
the Supreme Court having overruled age state governments to introduce a ministry) have no market intelligence
its earlier judgements endorsing tight spate of laws, rules and regulations to and are cut off from reality.
government control of private educa- dilute the autonomy of private schools They seem blissfully unaware that
tion institutions. In the historic T.M.A. and legislate tuition fees ceilings, and the medium of instruction debate has
Pai Foundation Case (2002), an bind private school managements in been raging for decades and that after
11-judge bench of the apex court ruled prolonged litigation and red tape. In prolonged litigation in KAMS vs. Gov-
that all citizens have a fundamental recent years, almost all state govern- ernment of Karnataka (2014), the Su-
right to establish and administer edu- ments have introduced fees control preme Court decisively ruled that re-
cational institutions of their choice regulations and ceilings forcing pri- gardless of expert opinion, the choice
under Article 30 (1) of the Constitu- vate school managements to divert of medium of instruction at all levels of
tion. Moreover, the apex court held their attention from institutional schooling is of parents. A three-judge
that the right to administer includes management to fighting courtroom bench of the apex court held that a
the right to admit students on merit in battles. 1994 ordinance of the Karnataka state
a fair and transparent manner, to levy Contemptuous indifference of the government that made Kannada or
reasonable fees and to make reason- educracy to Supreme Court judge- mother tongue the medium of instruc-
able profit for reinvestment in educa- ments and its reckless disregard of tion in primary schooling until class
tion. The ratio decidendi of the T.M.A. well-established precedents is also V, was violative of Articles 19 (1) (g),
Pai Case was upheld in P.A. Inamdar’s manifested in NEP 2020’s stated in- 26 and 30 (1) of the Constitution. “The
Case (2005). tent to make the “mother tongue or choice of medium of instruction is that

48 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2020