The Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD), which is currently examining the draft national policy on education, could drop a recommendation to set up a National Education Commission (NEC) on the lines of Niti Aayog.
The draft policy has recommended that the commission should be headed by the Prime Minister as the chairman and the Minister of HRD as the vice-chairman .
Some news reports have said that the Ministry has developed cold feet to the proposal after objections from several states including Gujarat.
Objections:
Education Ministers from various states, who recently attended the Central Advisory Board of Education meet in New Delhi, feared that the proposal could lead to centralisation of power.
They said that since education is a subject in the concurrent list, states should enjoy equal rights in framing laws and guidelines related to the sector.
The draft has proposed to set up the commission as it felt that the existing structure in the country was fragmented in nature and hence not effective in governing the education sector.
Some key suggestions from stakeholders:
The Ministry is currently examining as many as one lakh suggestions received from various stakeholders before finalising the draft policy. Some of them are:
1. Inclusion of Islamic value of charity and moral reasoning in the school curriculum.
2. Introduction of Arabic as one of the languages in the three-language formula.
3. Inclusion of Urdu among Indian classical languages.
4. Incorporation of the word ‘secularism’ in the policy document.