The recent development of a centre initiated National Education Policy saw a new proposal from the MHRD. Framing legal standards and benchmarks for coaching institutes, limiting ‘no-detention’ till class V only, grading schools and introducing a new curriculum framework in place of the 2005 National Curriculum Framework(NCF) are all part of the MHRD Reforms 2016 . The entire initiative is led upfront by former cabinet secretary TS Subramanian.
According to the committee of TS Subramanian, textbooks and pedagogy should have high ethical content and has recommended review every 5 years instead of the 10 year period. The direct impact of the approval of this proposal by NCF will lead to a new set of textbooks by NCERT. A top source explained that autonomy has to go together with high level accountability and as such reform of school education is inevitable. The MHRD plans to launch 25 programs as part of this new policy. It is a matter of time before the proposal is evaluated by the Cabinet once sent.
Apart from this, other major highlights of the proposal includes focus on mother tongue and extended emphasis on remedial coaching in government schools. Also recommendation have been given on setting up composite schools like in Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, where in schools share common resources such as labs and playground. The committee has also showed dissent to the policy of no detention and has asked to limit it till class V after which students should undergo assessment. Explanations by the proponents of this modification explains that how it has lowered both the interest in education among students and also the teaching quality in terms. Instead incentives to the well performing states is a better alternative according to them.
Apart from students, teachers with outstanding research caliber and papers should be assisted. Stand-Alone campuses by foreign universities has also come under radar and have been advised to enter into a domestic alliance with a school in order to carry on in the proposal. Apart from the mentioned reforms and new proposals, the functioning of existing institutions review has revealed that National University of Educational Planning & Administration(NUEPA) has failed to deliver results and should face the consequences while AICTE has been heavily praised for their pro-activeness with UGC getting a slight reminder of transparency issues.
The footnote of this initiative suggests that though widespread and massive, the poor quality of Indian Education System is the main folly. Thus a thorough evaluation via the Grading Process will allow to understand why some schools are performing better than others and what needs to be done to rectify the same with a special focus on the IES(Indian Education Service).
Source: goo.gl/hfpHuL
