Narendra Modi. File
The new National Education Policy (NEP) approved by the government of India last week is a mixed bag. Some parts of it reflect ideas the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological mentor, the Rashtreeya Swayamsevak Sangh, has been advocating since long.
But it also contains much from outside the limited world of ideas in which the BJP and the RSS have remained tethered.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi found it necessary to use unfamiliar terms to explain them.
“NEP’s focus on development of cognitive learning will promote innovative and critical thinking among students,” he said. He added emphasis would now shift from ‘what to think’ to ‘how to think’.
The NEP stipulates that the mother tongue or the regional language must be the medium of instruction in schools at the early stage and, if possible, later too.
This is a position previous governments too took. Its reiteration comes in the context of the emergence of a parallel English- medium stream at the lower levels at many places.
While pushing for the mother tongue the government must take note of the factors that make the expensive English-medium schools popular.
Many parents belonging to the marginalised sections view proficiency in English as a means of ensuring a better future for their children.
All Indian languages, including Hindi, which is still unable to play its constitutional role as official language of the Central government, have a serious deficiency. They lack works through which knowledge can be accessed.
Successive governments at the Centre and in the states have failed to take steps to address this problem.
Initially, the Constitution listed Education as a State subject. That precluded Parliament from enacting legislation on the subject.
Not that the Centre stayed out of this important area. In 1948, while the Constitution was still under discussion, it set up a University Education Commission with S Radhakrishnan as the chairman to suggest improvements and extensions to suit the country’s “present and future” requirements.
The Indian Institutes of Technology, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the University Grants Commission which came up in the time of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru testify to his visionary approach in this field.
In the 1960s the Centre appointed a committee headed by DS Kothari to formulate a national education policy, covering both the school and college levels. It recommended standardisation of the educational system on 10+2+3 basis: 10 years of school, two of pre-university and three for the basic degree.
At that stage the Constitution was amended, and Education placed in the Concurrent List. That made it possible for both Parliament and the State Assemblies to make laws on the subject.
After the Kothari commission’s recommendations were implemented, the national education policy was revised twice—in 1986 and 1992. Considering the vast changes the world has witnessed since the last revision, a fresh look at education policy to update the system was certainly needed.
The new NEP brings the nursery phase also under the regulatory system. In the process, it extends the school stage to 15 years.
The NEP says there will be no attempt to impose any language. This is a welcome declaration since there has been widespread fear that the Modi administration may push Hindi in furtherance of its idea of homogeneity.
Another welcome feature is the NEP’s emphasis on research. A glaring weakness of the current education scene is the dismal record in this area. India cannot hope to take its due place in the world of knowledge until this issue is addressed satisfactorily.
A highly undesirable aspect of India’s educational system is its extreme rigidity. The NEP says there will be no rigid separation between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities and between vocational and academic streams. This is in keeping with modern thought based on experience.
The NEP envisages allowing foreign universities which figure among the top 100 in international rankings to set up campuses in India. It also envisages permitting Indian universities which figure among the top 100 in national rankings to set up campuses abroad.
This cannot be said to be an entirely new idea. Provisions for collaboration between Indian and foreign universities have been in place for some years. However, they were not put to much use.
It is not clear how many of the world’s top universities are interested in setting up campuses in India and how many of India’s top universities are in a position to think of setting up foreign campuses. The NEP has merely laid down a new educational framework. What is more important is the content, not the framework, for that is what will determine the shape and character of the New India the Prime Minister is talking about.