The Committee for Draft National Education Policy (Chair: 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 (i) access, (ii) equity, (iii) quality, (iv) affordability, and (v) accountability faced by the current education system.
As a student of history, I looked for dates. The document begins with an updated message from Prakash Javadekar, as Minister, Human Resource Development, Government of India (p 1). The report was submitted on 15 December 2018 (p 3), so one may assume that the message was inserted sometime between December 2018 and May 2019.
More importantly, the document sets out deadlines for achieving various goals.[2] A plan for outlining the operational and financial implications of ECCE is slated to be ready by the end of 2019 (p 51), with the expectation that this will be achieved by 2025 (p 45). The same date (that is, 2025) is set for achieving foundational literacy and numeracy for all students in Grade 5 and beyond (p 55).
More critical is the year 2020. By then, the National Curriculum Framework is to be updated (p 101). In the same year, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are expected to morph into one of three possibilities —research universities, teaching universities and autonomous colleges (pp 213–14) and existing statutory bodies in these institutions will be dismantled and replaced by a Board of Governors (p 315). The Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (henceforth RSA), which, “over a period of time, as the roles and functions stabilize, … will be given Constitutional status through an Act of the Parliament” (p 394), will be in place. Meanwhile, it will review and approve the processes devised by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, henceforth NAAC (p 329). No more affiliated colleges will be set up after 2020. 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 employability, skill development and collaboration with industry ( pp 360, 365, 371).
Finally, fields of study such Women Studies or 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, and are extremely vibrant, need to find space and active encouragement. Additionally, existing disciplines such as history, political science and archaeology need to be supported rather than marginalized.