The grand promises made by the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the run-up to General Election 2014 to reform and upgrade Indian education, have remained mere IOUs to the people:    Summiya Yasmeen

2015 was a disappointing year for Indian education. The grand promises made by the BJP-led NDA coalition, which was voted to power with a huge majority at the Centre in the summer of 2014 to reform and upgrade Indian education have remained mere IOUs to the people. The year was marked by controversies with the NDA government dismally failing to fulfil its election promise of raising education spending to 6 percent of GDP. Moreover the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — the acknowledged ideological parent organisation of the BJP — which has a record of interference in school curriculums and faculty/institutional appointments, cast a long shadow over all BJP/NDA education initiatives.

Nevertheless the calendar year 2015 began on an upbeat note with the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry inviting public participation on the website www.mygov.in to prepare the long-awaited New Education Policy (NEP). While the initiative to formulate NEP 2016 was generally welcomed, the HRD ministry’s modus operandi — proposals to be submitted online within a cramped window of 500 characters and elaborate village/district/state-level consultations — prompted uneasiness and disquiet. Suspicion about the HRD ministry’s elaborate public participation exercise being a cosmetic drill were also sharpened by reports that the RSS had parallely established a Shiksha Niti Aayog (education policy commission) to invite education reform suggestions from “right-minded” citizens.

The NEP announcement was followed by a rude shock for Indian education. Despite the BJP’s election manifesto promising to increase the annual expenditure (Centre plus states) on education from the current 3.4 percent of GDP to 6 percent, while presenting the Union Budget 2015-16, finance minister Arun Jaitley slashed the Central government’s outlay for education from the budgeted Rs.82,771 crore in 2014-15 to Rs.69,075 crore — a first in the history of post-independence India when the budgetary outlay for education was lower than in the previous year and not even adjusted for inflation.

Moreover, instead of pressing the ministry’s case for a larger outlay for education in Union Budget 2015-16, Union HRD minister Smriti Irani made media headlines for reckless interference with the administration and autonomy of the country’s few globally ranked higher ed institutions, especially the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). In early March, nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar put in his papers as chairman of the board of governors of IIT-Bombay citing persistent interference from the HRD ministry. In May, the combative HRD minister sparked academic outrage by decreeing a new selection process for appointing the director of IIM-Lucknow with eminent educationists forced to undergo a humiliating ‘group discussion’ with her presiding. A month later, a new IIM Bill 2015, substantially expanding the supervisory and regulatory powers of the Central government, i.e, the Union HRD ministry, drew sharp criticism. In November, there was a national outcry against the ministry issuing a directive to the country’s premier IIT-Delhi to review its decision to reject the admission of a Ph D student who had submitted incorrect information about her work experience.

Notwithstanding the barrage of criticism the ministry’s ill-advised interventions in the country’s few surviving institutions of education excellence, and slashing of its budget by 24 percent, Irani pressed on with launching a number of schemes and programmes every second month. Among them: promotion of three new IITs, a choice-based credit transfer scheme for Central universities, National Institutional Rankings Framework, e-Pathshala (web portal), National Programme on School Standards and Evaluation Framework (shala siddhi), and GIAN (to boost higher education quality). However, these schemes inspired little confidence within educationists doubtful of the HRD ministry having the wherewithal to fund and implement these initiatives.

In short, the progress report card of Indian education in 2015 is less than inspiring. In primary education, the Annual Status of Education Report 2014 released in early 2015, again revealed a declining trend in student learning outcomes across the country.

Higher education institutions are reeling under a severe faculty crunch (30 percent of faculty positions are vacant countrywide).

Only two of India’s 800 universities are ranked in the QS Top 200 World University Rankings 2015, and India is the only country without a university in the Top 10 of the Times Higher Education BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) & Emerging Economies Rankings 2015.

In the following pages, Summiya Yasmeen summarises the education milestone events of 2015. (To access EducationWorld’s coverage of 2015 highlights go to educationworldonline.net archives).

ASER’s dismal report card

January 13. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014, a survey of learning outcomes of primary school children in rural India published by the highly-respected Mumbai-based NGO Pratham (estb.1994), was formally released in Delhi.

Conducted by over 30,000 field volunteers who tested 569,229 children in the age group 3-16 years in 577 districts countrywide, the survey reports a declining trend in learning outcomes.

For instance, only 25 percent of rural children in class III can read a class II text fluently. This number rises to under half in class V. Even in class VIII just before children enter high school, 25 percent of them cannot sufficiently read and comprehend class II texts. Maths learning outcomes are even worse. (Education News, EW February)

NEP invitation

January 26. On India’s 65th Republic Day (January 26), the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre invited public participation to formulate the long-awaited New Education Policy (NEP) 2016. A total of 33 ‘themes’ were selected — 20 in higher education and 13 in school education — for public suggestions and recommendations.

Among the 13 themes of school education shortlisted for public comment, were improving learning outcomes, extending the outreach of secondary and senior secondary education, strengthening vocational education, reforming school exam systems, revamping teacher education, etc. Likewise, the 20 themes on higher education included governance reforms, ranking and accreditation, regulation, role of Central institutions, improving state universities, integrating skill development programmes in higher education, promoting online courses and technology enabled learning, among others. (Education News, EW February).

However public recommendations under each theme were restricted to 500 characters, barely five sentences. Dissatisfied with this restriction which cast a shadow over the bona fides of this grudging invitation to the public, the editors of EducationWorld responded with a nine-page special report feature (EW August).

Young Citizens National Survey shock

January 26. The Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), a Bangalore-based public charitable trust, released its Yuva Nagarik Meter (‘Young Citizens National Survey’) assessing young Indians’ knowledge of their democratic rights and duties. Conducted by the well-reputed market research agency IMRB which interviewed 10,542 class IX students and first year college undergrads, plus 757 social science teachers in 11 state capitals, the survey revealed that the country’s youth are shockingly ignorant about their democratic rights and responsibilities, and entertain regressive beliefs and anti-social attitudes that bode ill for the nation in the new millennium.

In written tests administered by IMRB field researchers to determine their ‘national democratic citizenship score’ based on knowledge and awareness of seven citizenship domains, the sample respondents averaged a mere 21 out of a maximum possible 100.

In the domain of democratic governance, which tested awareness of human rights, rule of law, equality, role of legislatures, multi-party democracy and military rule, the sample respondents were awarded a shocking negative score of minus 11 percent. (Cover story, EW March)

Amartya Sen resigns from Nalanda University

February 19. In a letter addressed to the board of governors of Nalanda University, promoted under the Nalanda University Act, 2010 to revive the ancient glory of the eponymous varsity which in the 5th century BCE attracted students from around the world, economics Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya Sen resigned his post as chancellor with effect from July when his first three-year tenure ends. In a subsequent statement, Sen clarified that he won’t reconsider his decision as he has reasons to believe that the newly-elected BJP-led government at the Centre is against his reappointment as chancellor.

Sen’s decision generated shock waves in Indian academia. However, given that the Central government (under the Congress dispensation) had pledged to contribute Rs.2,727 crore of the estimated project cost of Rs.3,000 crore of the new varsity assuming shape and form in the small town of Rajgir, contiguous to the ruins of the ancient Nalanda University in the backward state of Bihar, Sen’s resignation wasn’t entirely unexpected. (Education News, EW March)

Union Budget slashes education outlay

February 28. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the first full-fledged budget of the Narendra Modi-led BJP/NDA government to Parliament. Despite the BJP’s election manifesto promising to increase the annual expenditure (Centre plus states) on education from the current 3.4 percent of GDP to 6 percent, in the Union Budget 2015-16, Jaitley actually reduced the Central government’s outlay for education from the budgeted Rs.82,771 crore in 2014-15 to Rs.69,075 crore — a first in the history of post-independent India when the budgetary outlay for education is lower than in the previous year in nominal rupees.

But perhaps the most unkindest cut in Budget 2015-16 was a 50 percent reduction in the allocation of the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) programme, which provides for the country’s 158 million children in the 0-5 age group, from the Rs.18,195 crore budgeted in 2014-15 to a mere Rs.8,355 crore. (Special Report, EW April)

Bihar’s exams cheating shame

March 18. A revealing photograph showing dozens of parents, friends and relatives scaling the walls of a four-storey building in Manhar village (Bihar), 60 km from Patna, to pass notes and chits to children writing the class X exam of the Bihar State Education Examination Board (BSEB), went viral on social media. The photograph — telling proof of brazen unchecked cheating at all levels of education which is de rigueur in India’s most backward state (literacy: 63.82 percent) — not only hit the headlines in India’s print and broadcast media, but in foreign media, including the New York Times and The Economist as well.

After a division bench of the Patna high court sharply reprimanded the state government for turning a blind eye to exam malpractices, the Janata Dal (U) government belatedly swung into action expelling 113 students and arresting over 161 parents, friends and relatives for aiding and abetting their wards to cheat in the board exam.

A fortnight later, another shocking incident of mass cheating was reported from Bihar when over 1,000 people were arrested for impersonation in a police constables recruitment examination held in Patna on March 28-29. (Education News, EW April)

RTE Act fifth anniversary

April 1. The landmark Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which obliges the State to provide free and compulsory education to every child in the 6-14 age group, completed its fifth anniversary.

According to the RTE Forum, a Delhi-based national coalition of over 10,000 NGOs, educationists and social activists which held its fifth National Stock Taking Convention on the implementation status of the RTE Act on March 25, 90 percent of the country’s 1.2 million government schools are non-compliant with the infrastructure norms and standards prescribed by the Act.

Moreover, the forum estimates a shortage of 500,000 teachers with the country’s 29 state governments having failed to fill teacher vacancies and/or to upgrade the skills and knowledge of 7 million primary school teachers to standards prescribed by the Act. Pass percentages in the Teacher Eligibility Tests (TETs) conducted by state governments are pitiably low, ranging between 0.3 to 6 percent countrywide.

Two deadlines — March 31, 2013 for all elementary schools to meet prescribed infrastructure norms and standards, and March 31, 2015 for all primary school teachers to attain minimum qualifications (i.e clear the Teacher Eligibility Test) — set by the RTE Act have elapsed, with little to show for them. (Special Report, EW June)

Professional colleges’ regulation Act

April 21. The BJP-Shiv Sena state government of Maharashtra passed the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Education Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015 through an ordinance. Under the Act, the state government will determine the tuition fees of every private professional (engineering, medicine, pharma, hotel management etc) education institution on the basis of the recommendation of a panel “set up under a high court judge, with a chartered accountant, a former vice chancellor among others on it”. 

The ordinance, which flies in the face of the Supreme Court’s verdict in the TMA Pai Foundation Case (2002) which held that private unaided higher education providers have a fundamental right to establish and administer institutions of their choice, evoked strong criticism from the promoters of private unaided professional education colleges in the state. (Education News, EW May)

EW India University Rankings 2015

May 7. The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru is India’s top-ranked university followed by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, according to an inaugural nationwide poll commissioned by EducationWorld, and conducted by the well-known Delhi-based market research and opinion polling company, C fore. In the category of private universities, the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani is ranked #1 followed by IIIT, Hyderabad and Manipal University.

Over 124 C fore field personnel polled a sample database of 5,689 well-informed individuals including 2,567 academics and 1,835 final year students in 187 universities and 1,287 managers in Indian industry, and asked them to rate and rank the country’s Top 200 universities across seven parameters of academic excellences. (Cover story, EW May)

IIM-Lucknow director appointment controversy

May 16. Seventeen candidates in the fray for the post of director of IIM-Lucknow participated in a group discussion chaired by Union HRD minister Smriti Irani at Shastri Bhavan, Delhi, headquarters of the ministry.  Previously, the board of governors of each IIM constituted a search committee which invited applications for this apex-level position, short-listed eligible candidates, interviewed them and recommended a panel of two-three names to the ministry which forwarded them to the President, ex-officio visitor of all IIMs.

This change in the selection process, reportedly ordered by HRD minister Smriti Irani aroused great indignation — as also apprehension — within IIM faculty, students, alumni and academics nationwide. (Education News, EW June)

IIM Bill, 2015 backlash

June. The Union HRD ministry uploaded a new Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Bill 2015 on its website for public comment and discussion. Although the stated objects of the Bill are to designate the IIMs as “institutions of national importance” and to invest them with degree awarding powers (under separate IIM Acts they are restricted to awarding postgraduate diplomas and fellowships), several provisions substantially expand the supervisory and regulatory powers of the Central government, i.e, the Union HRD ministry. Appointments to the board of governors, academic council, director, faculty and even syllabus and curriculum formulation are subject to government approval. Moreover, as per the draft Bill, the ministry’s approval will be required for matters related to admission criteria, scholarships and fellowships.

The regulatory provisions of the Bill, which severely curtail the autonomy of these elite institutions, evoked strong reactions from the country’s 13 IIMs particularly the top-ranked IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta, and India Inc. (Cover story, EW August).

TN to regulate preschools

June 12. The Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government of Tamil Nadu promulgated post-independence India’s first draft code of regulations for the state’s 11,300 playschools (aka pre-primaries/preschools).

According to the revised draft, a playschool is defined as a pre-kindergarten established for providing informal education to children in the age group 1.5-5.5. It requires the ownership of all preschools to vest in a not-for-profit trust or society and mandates extant pre-primaries to apply for recognition from the district elementary educational officer, and renew the approval every three years.

The draft whose prime intent is to ‘regulate’ preschools was heavily criticised by ECCE providers in the state. (Education News, EW July)

Mumbai University gets new VC

June 20. Dr. Sanjay Deshmukh was appointed 24th vice chancellor of the University of Mumbai (UoM, estb.1857). Deshmukh was selected from among five academics shortlisted by a search committee headed by Justice (Retd) B.N. Srikrishna, a former judge of the Bombay high court. According to UoM sources, 144 academics applied for the top academic position in Maharashtra (pop.112 million), of whom 21 were interviewed and five shortlisted by the Srikrishna Committee.

One of the country’s largest universities with 711 affiliated colleges and aggregate student enrolment of 650,000, UoM was engulfed in a major scandal earlier this year. Deshmukh’s predecessor Dr. Rajan Welukar, mysteriously appointed VC without having the requisite 15 years of professorial experience or having published the mandatory five research papers in international peer-reviewed journals, was sacked on February 19 during the hearing of a public interest litigation writ. (Education News, EW July)

AAP doubles Delhi education budget

June 25. The five-month-old Aam Admi Party (AAP) government of Delhi state presented its maiden Rs.41,129 crore Budget 2015-16 to the legislative assembly. Presented by deputy chief and education minister Manish Sisodia, the budget increased plan (mainly capital) expenditure for education to Rs.4,570 crore, a 106 percent hike over 2014-15.

Moreover, the total outlay for education is raised to Rs.9,836 crore from Rs.7,432 crore in 2014-15, making the AAP government’s first budget the most education-friendly in the history of Delhi state. “More than double plan allocation for the education sector has been arrived at after deep thought and is based on comprehensive plans for both school and higher education sectors,” said Sisodia, presenting the budget.

The major highlights of the budget are recruitment of 20,000 new teachers by year end; promotion of 236 new schools; construction of a second campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, and upgrading the top-ranked Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology into a university. (Education News, EW July)

Skill India initiative launched

July 15. On the first ever World Youth Skills day (July 15), the BJP-led NDA government launched the Skill India initiative, the third such ambitious programme after Make in India and Digital India in recent months. A National Skill Development Mission and a new National Policy for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (NPSDE) 2015 are the main highlights of the initiative. The national mission is a booster to achieve NPSDE in mission (urgent) mode.

NPSDE 2015, launched by prime minister Narendra Modi, provides for introduction of skilling into the education system. Starting with kaushal kendras (skill centres) at the village level, NPSDE 2015 envisages a multi-level skills education system with vocational education and training (VET) introduced into high school curriculums, and establishing government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) at block level, community colleges, etc.

Among the ambitious targets of NPSDE 2015 are introduction of VET in 25 percent of the country’s secondary schools from class IX onwards over the next five years, and integration of skills acquisition and training into higher education with polytechnics offering National Skills Qualification Framework vocational courses and bachelor of VET degrees. (Education News, EW August)

Revolutionary Allahabad high court order

August 18. The Allahabad high court directed that children of all Uttar Pradesh government employees including judges, local government officials and people’s representatives, be compulsorily enroled in government schools. According to a single judge bench of the court (Justice Sudhir Agarwal presiding), this is the only panacea for improving conditions and raising standards in Uttar Pradesh’s 146,000 primary and upper primary schools which grudgingly serve 17.5 million children.

While hearing a plea challenging the state government’s rules relating to assistant teacher appointments, the learned judge observed that the state’s disinterest in elementary education has led to the ruin of educational standards in public schools which serve 90 percent of UP’s school-going population. He directed the state’s chief secretary to submit a compliance report within six months.

The Allahabad high court’s historic order made headlines countrywide, and was welcomed by educationists and activists across the state, and unsurprisingly, deplored by government employees associations. (Education News, EW September)

CABE confirms no- detention provision review

August 19. The reconstituted Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) held its first meeting after the swearing-in of the BJP/NDA government at the Centre in May 2014. Subsequent to the meeting, it issued a statement that almost all state governments —except Karnataka — are in favour of repealing s.16 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which mandates automatic promotion of all children enroled in classes I-VIII.

Consequently, Union HRD minister Smriti Irani directed state governments to send their comments vis-a-vis s.16 to the ministry by September. (Education News, EW September)

EW India School Rankings 2015

September 7. Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane (co-ed), Daly College, Indore (day-cum-boarding), La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata (all-girls) and Campion School, Mumbai (all-boys) were ranked India’s most admired day schools in the eighth EducationWorld India School Rankings 2015.

Rishi Valley School, Chittoor (co-ed), Welham Girls, Dehradun (all-girls), and The Doon School, Dehradun (all-boys) were ranked #1 in the traditional/legacy boarding schools category, and Dhirubhai Ambani International, Mumbai (day), Indus International, Bangalore (day-cum-boarding) and Woodstock School, Mussoorie (fully residential) were voted #1 in the international schools category. Moreover this year, separate tables of Top 10 government day and residential schools, special needs and budget private schools were included.

A total of 11,660 SEC A fees-paying parents, teachers, principals and educationists in 27 cities countrywide were interviewed by 120 field researchers of the well-reputed market research company Centre for Forecasting & Research Pvt. Ltd  (C fore), Delhi to rate and rank 1,000 of the country’s most well-known day, boarding and international primary-secondary schools. (Cover story, EW September)

Government university league tables

September 29. The Union HRD ministry released a National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) to rate and rank India’s universities inter se. The framework will evaluate institutions on five parameters — teaching, learning and resources; research, professional practice and collaborative performance; graduation outcome; outreach and inclusivity; and perception of end users. Institutions/universities have to provide data online by December 31, and the final ranking will be unveiled in the first week of April 2016.

According to Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, NIRF, which includes uniquely Indian parameters such as inclusivity and affordability, will empower a larger number of Indian institutions to participate in the global rankings. “I see this as a sensitisation process and empowering tool, and not a tool for protection,” she said at the launch of the framework. (Education News, EW December)

NEP drafting committee constituted

October 31. The Union ministry of human resource development constituted a Drafting Committee for framing the New Education Policy (NEP). The drafting committee chaired by T.S.R. Subramanian, former cabinet secretary, comprises four members: Shailaja Chandra, former chief secretary, Delhi; Sewaram Sharma, former home secretary, Delhi; Sudhir Mankad, former chief secretary, Gujarat and Prof. J.S. Rajput, former director, NCERT. The National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi will serve as its secretariat.

The mandate of the Subramanian Committee is to assess the present education scenario, review the impact of the 1986 education policy updated in 1992, assimilate feedback based on public consultations and draft a new policy taking into account the changed social, economic and technological context.

Earlier on January 26, the ministry invited public recommendations on NEP’s 33 themes across school and higher education. Over 26,500 suggestions have been received online.

IIT-JEE review recommendation

November 5. A committee constituted by the IIT Council to review the current Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) submitted its report to the Union HRD ministry. The committee, headed by former IIT-Bombay director Ashok Misra, recommended major changes in the entrance examination for admission into the country’s 17 IITs including setting up of a National Testing Service which will conduct an aptitude test, success in which is a prerequisite to write the Joint Entrance Examination.

Among its other recommendations: a single entrance examination for both the IITs and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), with no weightage to class XII board marks and merging of JEE (Main) and JEE (Advanced) into one entrance exam. The government-appointed committee also recommended setting up a regulatory body for coaching institutes to ensure that they maintain best practices and charge regulated fees.

The Union HRD ministry has invited public comment on the committee’s recommendations. Meanwhile IIT-JEE 2016 will be conducted in the same format as in 2015.

Delhi government passes three education Bills

December 1. The Delhi legislative assembly passed three education bills — Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill, the Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill, and The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Delhi Amendment) Bill. The Bills, drafted and tabled by the AAP government, proscribe admission screening processes in nursery, regulate tuition fees (and refund excess fees) charged by private schools, and scrap the no detention provision of the RTE Act respectively.

“These bills will remove shortcomings of the existing education policy. After the new legislation, private schools can be run honestly. Government will form a committee which will get accounts of private schools audited through chartered accountants,” said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the legislative assembly.

SC upholds minimum education law

December 10. The Supreme Court upheld the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015 which prescribes minimum educational qualifications for candidates contesting local government (panchayat) elections.

The Act passed on September 7 by the Haryana state assembly requires general candidates contesting panchayat polls to have passed the class X school examination, and women and Dalit candidates to have cleared class VIII. The law also requires all candidates to have toilets in their homes and prohibits candidates with criminal convictions, pending electricity bills or bank loan payments from contesting panchayat elections.

In its judgement the Supreme Court bench ruled that the disqualifications stipulated by the Amendment Act are reasonable restrictions on people’s constitutional right to contest elections. “It is only education which gives a human being the power to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad,” opined the two-judge bench (see EW editorial p. 10).