T.S.R. Subramanian committee on New Education Policy

 The T.S.R. Subramanian committee, entrusted with preparing a new education policy for India submitted the report to the government suggesting measures that the country must take to improve the sector that caters to over 300 million students in the country.
Recommendation of Report:

• An Indian Education Service (IES) should be established as an all India service with officers being on permanent settlement to the state governments but with the cadre controlling authority vesting with the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry.
• The outlay on education should be raised to at least 6% of GDP without further loss of time.
• There should be minimum eligibility condition with 50% marks at graduate level for entry to existing B.Ed courses. Teacher Entrance Tests (TET) should be made compulsory for recruitment of all teachers. The Centre and states should jointly lay down norms and standards for TET.
• Compulsory licensing or certification for teachers in government and private schools should be made mandatory, with provision for renewal every 10 years based on independent external testing.
• Pre-school education for children in the age group of 4 to 5 years should be declared as a right and a programme for it implemented immediately.
• The no detention policy must be continued for young children until completion of class V when the child will be 11 years old. At the upper primary stage, the system of detention shall be restored subject to the provision of remedial coaching and at least two extra chances being offered to prove his capability to move to a higher class
• On-demand board exams should be introduced to offer flexibility and reduce year end stress of students and parents. A National Level Test open to every student who has completed class XII from any School Board should be designed.
• The mid-day meal (MDM) program should now be extended to cover students of secondary schools. This is necessary as levels of malnutrition and anaemia continue to be high among adolescents.
• UGC Act must be allowed to lapse once a separate law is created for the management of higher education. The University Grants Commission (UGC) needs to be made leaner and thinner and given the role of disbursal of scholarships and fellowships.
• Top 200 foreign universities should be allowed to open campuses in India and give the same degree which is acceptable in the home country of the said university.
• The report has criticised governments for interference in important appointments, especially that of Vice-Chancellors.
• The committee has laid stress, and has often repeated the recommendation of use of Information and Communication Tools (ICT) in higher education.

Analysis:

• This committee made recommendations to revive and rejuvenate India’s higher education sector.
• Huge vacancy in teaching positions, poor, unavailable and skewed funding for research, pathetic employability of graduates, money laundering in the name of capitation fees, vested interest and political interference in higher education are few of the major problems that plague the higher education sector.
• Education and its relation to two important branches of Indian society, caste and religion have been moulded since a very long time. Social re-engineering using education in an environment of identity and redistributive politics is the antithesis to wishing away politics from campuses.
• Teacher appointment, with a current 40 per cent vacancy in faculty positions, a grossly defective cog in the wheel of higher education, has been given focus.
• The Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyaan’s (RUSA) goal of 30 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) can be achieved with opening of new educational institutions. Regulation is about stability. A strong regulator, which importantly is independent in letter and spirit, can set the course right and allay fear of the public and industry vis-à-vis the graduates that our institutions churn.
• The recommendations of the TSR Subramanian committee has reiterated long standing demands and have made many recommendations keeping in view the changed educational ecosystem in which we operate.
• However, Report of this committee contradicts with Right to Education(RTE) Act, 2009. The draft National Education Policy insisting on “consolidation”, proposes merging “small, non-viable” schools. This subverts the RTE Act on neighbourhood schools being located “within a walking distance of one kilometre” for children attending Classes 1 to 5. The draft also emphasizes “school mapping” – as opposed to RTE’s “child-mapping” – but stresses that for children attending “non-viable” schools, transport must be provided. And, the proposal to extend the 25% economically weaker section quota in private schools to minority institutions will also need an amendment. The committee notes that number of schools claiming religious or linguistic minority status has increased tremendously.

By: Vishal