Bharat’s Vedic systems focused on raising human perception, not human knowledge. It always cultured an identity through ‘Vidhyarambam’ before one started education. This meant one took a universal or cosmic identity, since education is empowerment. Fixing universal identity was called ‘Ahambrahmasmi’. The classical Upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita were nothing but insightful, open-ended conversations and questions about reality and our place in the universe. The teacher played a pivotal role in our timeless cultural and educational milieu.
Our modern Bharat, too, should help human intelligence flower to the fullest. We have to do transcreation rather than translate our sacred texts for a new generation of learners.
Our gurukuls have to be laboratories of living questions rather than ossified fortresses of answers. Our educators must be rooted in the conviction that they can shape the world’s future through their students.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a far-sighted policy document which envisions “an education system rooted in Indian ethos that contributes directly to transforming India that is Bharat, sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society, by providing high-quality education to all. The vision of the Policy is to… support responsible commitment to human rights, sustainable development and living, and global well-being, thereby reflecting a truly global citizen.”
India has a massive network of around 1.5 million schools with an enrolment of over 260 million students. The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) by the non-profit organization Pratham confirms, as the findings over the years have shown, that although students complete elementary education, many of them just fail to acquire basic foundational skills. The school, therefore, has to be the anchor of community life, leveraging the past, building the present and planning for a better future. In the emerging world of transient skills and the need to keep overhauling skill sets, an important function of schooling is to teach a student how to learn, thus breaking down the walls between know-what, know-how and know-all.
Sri Aurobindo pithily reflects on the role of a teacher, “Teaching is not a process of forcing the mind to absorb information; it is the gentle awakening of the mind’s own power of thought.” The NEP 2020, therefore, envisages teachers to be at the center of fundamental reforms. “Teacher preparation is an activity that requires multidisciplinary perspectives and knowledge, the formation grounded in Indian values, languages, knowledge, ethos, and traditions including tribal traditions, while also being well-versed in the latest advances in education and pedagogy”. The NEP 2020 promises, “By 2030, only educationally sound, multidisciplinary, and integrated teacher education program shall be in force.”
The NEP 2020 envisions a complete overhaul and re-energizing of the higher education system to deliver high-quality higher education, with equity and inclusion. The policy’s vision includes key changes such as a) Moving towards a higher educational system consisting of large, multidisciplinary universities and colleges, with at least one in or near every district, and with more HEIs across India that offer medium of instruction or program in local/Indian languages, b) Moving towards a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education, c) Moving towards faculty and institutional autonomy, d) Revamping curriculum, pedagogy (it is known students learn better when presented with real-life problems in a familiar context, requiring more accountable and decentralized system – so crucial an ingredient for Viksit Bharat), assessment, and student support for enhanced student experiences, e) Reaffirming the integrity of faculty and institutional leadership positions through merit-appointments and career progression based on teaching, research, and service, f) Establishment of a National Research Foundation (NRF) to fund outstanding peer-reviewed research and to actively seed research in universities and colleges, g) Governance of HEIs by high qualified independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy, h) ‘Light but tight’ regulation by a single regulator for higher education, i) Increased access, equity, and inclusion through a range of measures, including greater opportunities for outstanding public education; scholarships by private/philanthropic universities for disadvantaged and underprivileged students; online education, and Open Distance Learning (ODL); and all infrastructure and learning materials accessible and available to learners with disabilities. Higher education has a deeper connection with jobs. There was and is a clear role for institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and many others. They should have looked at the day’s problems, formalized them, and converted them into business models and job definitions that offer solutions that deliver value, instead of becoming accessories to the globalization of knowledge and an unequal system of delivering the benefits of science to the people.
To realize the potential of our higher education system, policy must do less to achieve more, and reflect its diversity. With over 42 million enrolments, Bharat has more students in higher education than the population of three-quarters of the countries in the world.
They present most heterogeneity too. Such a diverse system requires a limited state role for Private and public professional colleges affiliated to universities (6,000 engineering colleges and 3,000 management institutes), Institutes of national importance (IITs, IISc, IIMs, and NIDs), Full-service universities with the humanities and social sciences, Several recent private philanthropic efforts, and Research universities, which requires that the full Rs 50,000 crore be state funded, and the NRF be run by academics and scientists. NRF has the potential to transform both higher education & scientific research. An effective NRF would prioritize excellence over relevance, and we must adhere to the two principles: Firstly, exclusively funding research within the higher education system, and secondly, funding researchers in both private and public academic institutions. The idea is fund science, not Science.
There are over 30,000 tuition and coaching centers in India, essentially exposing the underbelly of education involving imbalances in demand-supply ratios, and disparities among institutions (The civil services examination has a low pass percentage of just 0.2 per cent of the one million students who apply for it. Each year, some 800,000 students take the entrance examinations for just 50,000 seats available at the IITs, National Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Information Technology). According to the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), the coaching industry reaps revenues of Rs 58,088 crore a year. The government’s latest guidelines for coaching centers must lead to NEP resolutions getting fast-tracked.
Twelve million Indians turn 18 every year. Yet, NEP 2020 recognizes that only a very small percentage of the Indian workforce in the age group of 19–24 (less than 5 per cent) received formal vocational education. The NEP, therefore, requires urgent integration of vocational education program into mainstream education in all education institutions. Skill initiatives are a scalable, sustainable, and affordable vehicle to massify education through innovations, including disruptions due to recent advances in digital technology.
It’s time educators and top researchers are brought to the forefront of policy making; work on NEP 2020, in a finite time sprint, to have all the foundational pieces in place by 2030 (its 15-year glide path, proposed earlier, should cut its course to 2030). The mandate would be to let Bharat transform India by 15 August, 2047 – foundationally literate, and unexceptionally skilled. Research has shown teaching in mother tongue leads to better skilling. Our languages, never to be called vernaculars again, would be adopted as languages of administration, of judiciary, of industry and commerce, and of learning. Thomas Babington Macaulay’s legacy must be buried forever, letting Bharat rise in its color, and with its Chaitanya Atma.
Arun Agarwal is an author, columnist, teacher and ex-CEO. He is currently a Professor of Practice at Rizvi Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai.