The country’s education sector may be eagerly waiting unveiling of the New Education Policy (NEP), but the MHRD, currently under Prakash Javadekar, is unlikely to introduce it anytime soon, sources close to the MHRD have said.
A source in the MHRD told The Sunday Guardian: “The MHRD is likely to avoid bringing the NEP this year as several provisions of the newly drafted education policy could be contentious and might lead to protests against the government. The incumbent MHRD doesn’t want to take risk at a time when Assembly elections are scheduled in several states and general elections next year.”
After missing several deadlines in the past, earlier this year, HRD minister Javadekar had set a deadline for introducing the NEP on 11 November 2018, but it failed to meet the deadline. Every year, 11 November celebrated as National Education Day and, therefore, it was chosen as the deadline for introducing the NEP. The minister is currently heading the Rajasthan Assembly election campaign team. “The NEP, focuses on girls’ education, promotion of English medium education in rural areas, strengthening public institutions and promotion of traditional knowledge. Special attention is given to technical and skill-based education,” the source said.
The Sunday Guardian has learnt that the country’s education sector could see a paradigm shift after the implementation of the NEP which stresses on the need for affordable education, and involvement of private partners.
Badshah Alam, professor at Jamia Millia Islamia, told The Sunday Guardian: “The country’s education sector is in a bad shape as the UPA government did not pay much attention to it. When in 2014, the BJP came to power, hopes for NEP grew stronger, but now it seems that the incumbent government, too, is not interested in reforming the country’s education system like its predecessor.”
“Our universities are in a bad shape; they are being run with ad-hoc teachers, technical education is stagnant and the expenditure on education is becoming unbearable for the middle and lower middle classes,” Alam said.
Last year in March, Javadekar had said that his ministry will soon initiate the process of appointment of 9,000 permanent teaching staff. However, nothing has happened in this direction. Delhi University alone has 4,000 vacancies, ” Alam added.The existing education policy is two decades old, and was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.
In its 2014 election manifesto, the BJP had promised to bring the NEP to change the country’s education sector. In this regard, a committee headed by T.S.R. Subramanian was formed and the panel submitted its report in May 2016, but the recommendations were not in line with the then HRD minister Smriti Irani and the proposal was struck down by her ministry.
In June 2017, a new committee under ISRO chief Dr. K. Kasturirangan was formed. The committee submitted the final NEP draft in June 2018, but ever since, the NEP draft has been in limbo.