During the week that has gone, one can see the education ministry, CBSE, and hon’ble minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal all in good actions and initiatives. Readers would recall we have written a post on the same a week before requesting the ministry of education to interact and talk to students and state education departments.
Indeed it was satisfying to see the CBSE and the hon’ble minister in a proactive mood. We are sure that the meeting with the state education representatives and ministers would have been successful [1] . We don’t know yet the outcome of the meeting but there were basically three prime agendas for the meeting. The three main agendas of the meeting are COVID-19 and online education; implementation of National education policy; and discussion on the feasibility of class 12 th board exams.
There is another meeting scheduled on Tuesday 24th May with h vice-chancellors of central universities and there is another meeting tied up with directors of IITs and IIMs. Many of the positions of VC’s in central Universities are lying vacant . The selection of Directors of IITs and JNU is also pending and it is reported that after the initial process the files have stopped moving . All these institutes are therefore losing their steam in want of new Directors and VC’s. These do not reflect well on the overall performance of the ministry and should be immediately sorted.
Besides the 12th Board exams , the ministry is also concerned on the implementation of NEP and would like to know the ground situation from various states on all the issues.
Our Observations and Suggestions are as given below :-
As said congratulations to the minister and concerned officers to conduct virtual meetings. We would like to suggest the minister and the government.
1. First the government should not delay further the 12th board exams and make up its mind. Even a diluted version, whereby exams will be conducted only for major papers is a good idea to lower the overall risk. CBSE should come up with an early decision after its round of meetings [2]
2. The government must also finalise all decisions by June and finalise the academic calendar for the next session to be started uniformly across all states.
3. NEP should be postponed for next year. However the government should start training teachers across the country. is a must. There are certain sections in NEP that would require comprehensive content and trained teachers both of which are in short supply.[3]
4. We need to seriously think about the exam pattern being conducted in the country. The semester based system in NEP is a good initiative but can we make these tests objective , MCQ, and centralised so that some uniformity of standards are maintained. The present exam system across schools is just useless and merely a formality for 80% of the class.
5. Talk to the states about the scholarships being given to the students. There is a lot of malpractice as well as the output of these scholarships is also not as desired.
6. Revise the syllabus of NCERT . Appoint experts and consultants in line with present requirements. The world has changed a lot but it seems that NCERT is still living in old times.
7. Send the AICTE CHAIRMAN and complete AICTE team for a month’s training to some institute where they can be taught management and vision . It is useless to convince them as they all are deep into sycophancy , hypocrisy and corrupt practices.
8. We don’t understand why UGC is still maintained as an organization except for……
9. The minister must try to have a single board across the country. Just like the GST reform we can have a single CBSE system and platform for the whole country except for language courses which can be state determined.
In short we have to go miles and the hon’ble minister has to take the initiative. We request all the ‘Shikshavids’ along with the senior members of Sangh must also devote reasonable time to this important issue of education as no country can progress unless there is a proper educational system. We can’t help but recall the excellent tenure of Sh. Murli Manohar Joshi ji and his team during the Vajpai era to overhaul the system to a good extent. Similar efforts are needed again
References:-1. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/education-minister-pokhriyal-to-meet-all-state-education-secretaries-on-monday-11621056249082.html2. https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/cbse-12-board-exam-2021-union-education-minister-ramesh-pokhriyal-calls-for-high-level-vertual-meeting-1805909-2021-05-233. https://ncte.gov.in/nep/
Dr. Asheesh Shah
Samanvaya.
