Impact of the Draft National Education Policy on its adoption by the Government of India
INTRODUCTION
The Committee for Draft National Education Policy, chaired by Dr. K. Kasturirangan submitted its report on May 31, 2019. The Committee was constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in June 2017. The report proposes an education policy, which seeks to address the challenges of: access, equity, quality, affordability, and accountability faced by the current education system. The aim in the present draft in the words of the chairman, Dr Kasturirangan, is to attempt "to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st Century education, while remaining consistent with India's traditions and value systems".
At the level of society, the aim of higher education must be to enable the development of an enlightened, socially conscious, knowledgeable, and skilled nation that can uplift its people, and construct and implement robust solutions to its own problems. Higher education must form the basis for knowledge creation and innovation in the nation and thereby contribute deeply to a growing national economy. The purpose of quality higher education is therefore more than simply the creation of greater opportunities for individual employment; it represents the key to more vibrant, socially engaged, and cooperative communities and a more happy, cohesive, cultured, productive, innovative, and prosperous nation. Research and innovation is central to growing and sustaining a large and vibrant society and it's economy. Indeed, there is a clear correlation between the rates of research and innovation investment of developing/developed nations and various measures of their prosperity such as GDP per capita.
EXAMINING THROUGH SOCIOLOGICAL LENSES
Examining educational policy through a sociological lens allows for a deeper understanding of the educational process—both of the individual and of the organization. Sociologists study the provision of education, including policies created at various levels of government, the implementation of these policies, and the outcomes for the individual and organization. Policies in education affect a broad range of the population, spanning from birth to adult learning. Educational policy is influenced by the historical context in which the policy is shaped; the social forces and consequences that extend beyond the walls of educational institutions; and the political setting of reform.
The draft policy is an important document outlining policies whose implementation will make an impact on future generations. Therefore, it deserves to be discussed widely in terms of the possible implications of the policy.
POSITIVE IMPLICATIONS
The policy's strengths include its welcome recognition of education as a public good, rather than as a commodity to be consumed. There is also an occasional acknowledgement of diversities. The policy envisages space for teachers to create and transact courses at least in higher education, and insists on the continued allocation of public funds to strengthen the educational system. This gives the students to move forward in gaining academic knowledge which is not just confined to a pre-structured module or syllabus.
More importantly, the document sets out deadlines for achieving various goals. More critical is the year 2020, where Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are expected to morph into one of three possibilities —research universities, teaching universities and autonomous colleges. This will be beneficial for all the three segregation as the autonomous colleges will be able to award their own degrees. Segregation will also help in motivating the second and third categories of institutions to race up to the level of the first institution i.e. research universities, creating an environment of healthy competition.
By 2024 (assuming 2019 as the starting point) there will be five world-class liberal arts universities modeled on Nalanda and Ivy League schools . This will be an initiative to establish universities particularly focusing of social sciences and humanities.
Further, all districts will have HEIs, which will be completely 'autonomous', in terms of recruitment of faculty, and determining salary structures. Students will be able to access higher education within their respective districts. Some families are reluctant in sending their children to faraway places for seeking education, due to various issues such as financial, cultural variation. Moreover, "all currently existing genuine teacher education institutions must aim to become multidisciplinary higher education institutions by 2030". In the same year, "all institutions offering either professional or general education must organically evolve into institutions offering both seamlessly". The aim is to provide everything within a single roof, which will help in the overall academic development and not just confined to a few areas.
By 2032, only accredited HEIs will be able to grant degrees or diplomas, as autonomous colleges will also gain the freedom to grant their own degrees. All institutions of education and research, public as well as private, will be allowed to award degrees in their own names, irrespective of whether the word 'university' figures in their name or not. By 2032 affiliated colleges have to merge with universities or become universities. The monopoly of the universities over their affiliated colleges will cease.
The diversity and multi-dimensional aspects of contemporary sociology is in fact a scientific advantage. This aspect of the discipline permits researchers to seek innovative approaches and innovative explanations of the social phenomena that they consider. In fact, it is the occasional impulse towards trying to make the discipline "more scientific" by enforcing a paradigm of research and theory on researchers that are most debilitating to the progress of knowledge - whether it is the rational choice paradigm in political science, or the quantitative methods paradigm in sociology. Methodological and theoretical pluralism is an intellectual advantage. Sociological researchers who are receptive to analyzing the multiple aspects of a social problem from several different points of view are more likely to arrive at truly illuminating analysis. Not all these approaches will be equally fruitful; but a mixed "portfolio" of research strategies and theoretical models is more likely to be adequate to the messy reality of a changing social world.
There are several problems for the country. The problems are multi-ethnic, multi-caste, multi-religion, multi-region and multi-linguistic. Economic problems coupled with unemployment are disasters. These problems needs to be analysed by a multidisciplinary approach, where sociology plays a key role.
HEIs are visualized as multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary spaces, and a long list of disciplines that are supposed to ensure this is provided. These include Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Dalit Studies, Studies of Discrimination and Exclusion, Environmental Studies and Development Studies, all of which have developed in challenging ways over the last three or four decades, often through dialogue between activists and academicians.
NEGATIVE IMPLICATIONS
The Ministry of Human Resources Development will revert to its old name, the Ministry of Education. This is somewhat ironical in view of the fact that the document repeatedly talks about issues of employ-ability, skill development and collaboration with industry.
By 2035, the gross enrollment ratio (GER) for higher education is expected to be at least 50% and, by 2040, the number of HEIs will decrease, but the clustering of students in them will increase. It is the immediate and rapid restructuring of higher education that is assigned priority in practice. There is a welcome assurance that the contractualisation of the teaching profession will come to an end. Where there is a need in the number of teaching assistance, the policy is on the verge to strive it away.
With democratization of knowledge and availability of technology for easy access to information, the draft should have focused more on how to teach and not only on what to teach. The entire education system has become subservient to "success" in "public examinations", such as the school-leaving examinations, or the entrance tests for seeking admission to institutions of higher or professional education, at present. These examinations, by and large, are only rewarding short-term memory and basic learning of concepts per se is compromised. The focus of the policy should be to minimize such limitations of the examination system.
Researchers will be expected, to connect the research across disciplines with societal needs, with governmental bodies and with industry. Further: "It is also extremely important to note that only the government can have the perspective to drive the research that will result in innovations which will facilitate economic growth". Evidently, the autonomy promised to teachers and researchers in HEIs is to be exercised within sharply defined parameters. So, while the NRF will have an annual budget of Rs 20,000 crores, how it will be utilized will be regulated by the government. The degree of control envisaged becomes even more apparent when we learn that the Governing Board of the NRF will be constituted by the RSA, which in turn, will be headed by the Prime Minister.
Perhaps the most drastic changes envisaged are in the systems of governance, in spite of all the claims to academic autonomy. Here, the ideal is to establish clear chains of command, without any scope for democratic functioning or representation from students or faculty. What we will have instead, is a "competent and committed Board" of governors. The criteria for those who will head these institutions lay less stress on academic excellence, and focus instead on leadership and management. There will be no elected members to any of the bodies or structures within the HEI, other than some bodies of students". Sadly, and ironically, then, HEI, which are supposed to educate future citizens, will be reduced to institutions that are run in a completely top-down mode, with virtually no legitimate space left for the learning and practice of democratic ideals.
The percentage of universities, having sociology department, had been falling. Only a few per cent of universities in India have sociology departments, out of which most sociology departments are not separate, it is merged with other departments of the university. A majority of students opt for sociology as one of their subjects at graduation level. It is considered as an easy subject to get through in examination. It is usually preferred by girls particularly those who are not much career conscious, acting as a license to get married. The idea and scope of the subject needs to be developed among the public.
CONCLUSION
A massive and rapid restructuring of higher education is being envisaged, it would be useful to know the basis on which these policies have been devised. What are the specific problems that were perceived in existing HEIs, which are differentiated and unique in many ways, with distinctive histories, by the policymakers? These need to be clearly spelt out before the suggested remedies of standardized top-down administrative systems for all are adopted.
The education system will be subjected to a reinforced top-down system of monitoring and surveillance, the spaces for questioning, debate, discussion, and dissent will shrink rapidly. This may be administratively expedient, it will weaken the roots of democracy.
REFERENCES
1.Draft National Education Policy 2019
2.https://www.drishtiias.com/loksabha-rajyasabha-discussions/draft-national-education-policy-2019
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