Talking to Millennium Post, Mukul Kanitkar, joint organising secretary of BSM, said: “Teachers are the backbone of an institution and are aware of the problems faced by faculty members and students. In the proposed education commission, we have suggested that 65-75 per cent of members should be from the academia.”
Explaining the composition of the proposed commission, Kanitkar said: “Teachers, scholars or academicians, representing institutions, would come under 65-75 <g data-gr-id="37">per cent</g> part of the members, while the remaining 25 <g data-gr-id="38">per cent</g> would be represented by representatives of the society such as members of farmers’ body, industry and women’s group to name a few. This will help in giving a respectful presence of society in decision making by the commission.”
Taking a dig at bureaucrats, Kanitkar, a law graduate from Nagpur, said: “The idea is not a bizarre as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is headed by scientists, is giving tremendous results. If it would have been under a regulator or administrator the <g data-gr-id="40">Mangalyan</g> would not have been a success story for the country,” adding, “So, I’ve moved a draft for this new commission, demanding bureaucrat-free body as we need <g data-gr-id="41">sanchalak</g> (convenor) not <g data-gr-id="42">shashak</g> (administrator) for running educational institutions.”
Kanitkar informed that the commission would be first established at the state-level and then at the district and block level. The idea behind the proposal is to bring all branches of education such as policy formulation, talent promotion, research and development under one umbrella.
The idea of Kanitkar was supported by TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education, chairing a brainstorming session on re-architecting higher education system of <g data-gr-id="23">country</g>.
“The present education policy of the country is anti-poor and anti-Bharat,” said Pai, stressing on the need to revisit the funding pattern of the government to institutions. “In spite of so many investments by governments to educate children in schools, the productivity is negligible. So, to get the best results, governments should fund either parents or students.”