Why has this article been published?
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has put out for public consultation the draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, which seeks to replace the University Grants Commission. Second, the Right to Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018, was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 18 and is now before the Rajya Sabha. It seeks to eliminate the no-detention policy and reintroduce testing for Classes V and VIII.
Aim of the above initiatives
Such initiatives in education are triggered by a long-standing concern that we need a thorough policy shift in our systems of education.
Concerns on the HECI Bill
- It makes the problem worse through over-centralization and enhanced political interference. The move to entrust all grant-giving powers to the Ministry can lead to politicization of grant allocation and more interference by the bureaucracy.
- Further, instead of preserving autonomy, the Bill allows the Chairperson of the new Commission to be a member of the Central government, something expressly prohibited in the UGC Act.
- The bill also transgresses the autonomy of higher educational institutions by allowing micromanagement, for instance, on syllabi.
- The new over-arching body does not involve the States sufficiently and or accommodate the diverse needs of the country.
Detention policy
- The Right to Education (RTE) Bill 2018 does away with the policy that children cannot be detained till they complete elementary education in Class VIII.
- This would potentially push out many children who are unable to meet standards because they have been deprived of quality education.
- The no-detention policy was to be implemented together with continuous assessment, which would help identify learning deficiencies and correct them. However, the education system has failed to provide continuous assessment and so the government is falling back on examinations and detention, which can lead to students becoming discouraged and higher dropout rates.
- Nine years since the launch of the RTE we have achieved near universalization of enrollment of children at the elementary level. The no-detention policy is successful in that sense. However, if the aim is to improve learning outcomes, the policy alone is unhelpful. To improve learning outcomes in children, there are other specific provisions in the RTE that need attention. Besides maintaining a good pupil-teacher ratio (PTR), proper infrastructure like all-weather buildings, barrier-free access in schools, separate toilets for boys and girls are pertinent measures to improve qualitative standards enshrined in the RTE.
- Declining funds is another reason why the RTE has not been implemented in letter and spirit. Allocations for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the main vehicle to drive RTE implementation, have remained much below the resource estimates made by the MHRD.
- No-detention can work only if there is improved quality, which the current amendment to RTE does not ensure.
