Friday

14


August , 2020
Is India’s education being Americanised?
12:15 pm

Buroshiva Dasgupta


National Education Policy, 2020, is set to change the country’s education radically. At least that’s the vision. After prolonged discussions through different segments of the society for three to four years, the committee, led by the eminent scientist Kasturirangan, finalised the policy and got the affirmative nod from the Cabinet.

The Opposition, however, has not spared the policy paper from its criticism. Some say it’s a ‘cut and paste’ job; some say it’s the first step to ‘saffronise’ education. However, after the Kothari Commission’s report in the 1960s, followed by a few attempts at revision in 1986 and 1992, this is the first report that looks into the education system comprehensively and suggests bold steps for much needed change required in this sector.

First let us be clear that this is just a vision document okayed by the government.  This is no constitutional change nor does it give the government the legal right to implement it. As it has happened to many of the previous committee reports, it can very well be put in cold storage. But the enthusiasm shown by the prime minister on the new NEP document raises hope. There are doubts, too. He has described the policy document as an entry to modern India. But the changes suggested by NEP, if implemented, will entail huge expenditure. An estimate shows that the education sector expenditure might go up to 6 % of the GDP (which is the case in many advanced countries and therefore highly plausible). In India, however, where the allotment for the education sector at present is less than one per cent of the GDP, can we believe in this Utopia?

So far we have followed the British tradition in education. Oxford and Cambridge have been our models just as our television, Doordarshan, followed the BBC style. Except for a few cases, the models did not work and just as Doordarshan messed up the BBC model, we did it too in education. In the last few decades we had started imitating the American university models. The new NEP document is quite open in following the American education structure and thereby inviting a floodgate of criticism.  That ‘Bharat’ will follow the old British imitative structure while ‘new’ India will follow the updated American style – this dichotomy has been broken by the new vision document. A uniform system was the need of the hour, and NEP has boldly put it forth. In the new system, choice of subjects can become extremely flexible. One can choose a combination of physics and music, possible in the west but never in India. We took so long to understand that the ‘two cultures’ – science and arts – have  merged  and become one  in  the modern world, especially  in this digital  environment.

The language issue is a major problem in a multilingual country like India. Mother tongue has been suggested as the medium of instruction in the formative years of school. This means every language has been given its due respect. The advantage of learning English has been spelt out and it can be simultaneously taught with the mother tongue. No compulsion clause has been added, not even for the third language Hindi.

The efficacy  of the 5 3 3 4 structure in pre-school ,  middle and high  school levels can be debated further; so can  the change  in  the  graduation course from three years to four years. But the intention is clear: be as accommodative as possible, avoid drop-outs. We can and will discuss further. The conversation needs to move forward.

 
 

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