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Source: The post is based on the article “Nine years of Modi govt: In education, big plans, some key gains” published in The Indian Express on 8th June 2023.
Syllabus: GS 2 – Education
Relevance: About the achievements and concerns with the education system in India
News: The current government in its second term has made significant development in the field of education in India.
What are the developments made?
NEP 2020: There has been notable progress over the past year. For instance, common entrance tests for central universities, granting universities more autonomy to collaborate with foreign institutions among others have been implemented. The NIPUN Bharat scheme has also been implemented.
However, some of the announcements on NEP are believed to be superficial. For instance, the renaming of the mid-day meal scheme as PM POSHAN without any additional funding allocation.
Further, despite the NEP’s recommendation to include breakfast as part of the mid-day meal, the Finance Ministry refused to implement this for pre-primary and elementary classes.
Similarly, the relaunch of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan Scheme has received lower funding than proposed by the Education Ministry.
National Curriculum Framework: The NCF, a policy document for revising textbooks and classroom pedagogy, is nearly complete.
School Textbooks: The NCERT has undertaken three rounds of revisions in school textbooks. The third round aimed at reducing the curriculum burden on students.
Foreign Universities: The current government has made significant progress in liberalising higher education to accommodate foreign universities.
Currently, the UGC is preparing a regulation that would allow foreign universities to establish campuses in India, have their own admission process and fee structures and recruit faculty and staff from here and abroad.
New Institutions, Enhanced Capacity: Over the past nine years, the government has established several new centrally run educational institutions.
Additionally, existing institutions have undergone significant capacity enhancement through the implementation of the EWS quota. This has increased the intake capacity.
Female representation: Various initiatives have been taken to increase female representation in male-dominated educational institutions.
For instance, the supernumerary seats were introduced for women at IITs and NITs in 2018. This resulted in a rise in female representation from 9% in 2017 to 20% in 2022 at IITs.
Moreover, according to AISHE data, there has been a reduction in gender disparity in higher education enrolment since 2014.
Other initiatives: The no-detention policy under the RTE Act 2009, which guaranteed promotion through Class 1 to 8, was scrapped in 2019.
The National Testing Agency was set up in 2017, the Medical Commission of India was dissolved in September 2020 and replaced with a new body – National Medical Commission. Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) was set up in 2017.
What issues with education remain?
Autonomy: In contrast to the first term of the government, the momentum seen in granting autonomy to institutions diminished in the second term. While the IIMs received increased autonomy, other centrally run institutions like central universities and IITs have not been granted similar freedoms.
Additionally, as per a recent investigation, the promised autonomy under the Institutions of Eminence (IOE) scheme mostly exists in theory.
Vacant Faculty and Leadership Positions: In the past nine years, central educational institutions (CEIs) have faced a shortage of teachers and vacant leadership positions. Even the appointment of heads of CEIs has been slow.
Other Issues: Despite the promise made to raise public spending on education to 6% of the GDP, the overall allocation towards education has been stagnant at 2.8% to 2.9% of the GDP.
The establishment of National Research Foundation (NRF), the Higher Education Commission of India and Digital University has not yet been done.
Source: The Indian Express
