Progressing through pitfalls

Narendra Damodardas Modi, the most popular Prime Minister of Independent India, has started his third term. Modi’s first two terms comprising ten years were mostly devoted to infrastructure development, improved financial planning, Bharat-centric diplomacy and so on. Education, it is well known, required reform from the foundation, which takes time. The policies need to be changed and the people involved in imparting education also need to be re-trained. It has been mentioned time and again, academia design reform but academia is most resistant to change. Reforming education is most difficult. It takes time.

The basic planning took ten years. The National Education Policy 2020 is testimony that the grassroot planning has been done. It’s education, and education alone, which can affect a permanent transformation. The nation is now ready for fast changes and transformation to the Vikshit Bharat 2047. The third term of Modi has Education as its focus is apparent, as the most successful minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has been given the charge of Education, so that the objective fixed for 2047 can be met. Amongst the most popular programmes of Modi 1.0 & 2.0 Governments has been the Ujjwala Yojana, which was introduced and spearheaded by Dharmendra Pradhan, now the Education Minister. The agenda is apparent – transform Education.

The NEP 2020 was released four years back on July 29, 2020. In a month’s time, we would be celebrating four years of the NEP, and like last years, the PM will definitely address the students, teachers and the other stakeholders. The Darshan (Vision) of the policy is loud and clear – by 2040, every 18-year-old will be pursuing quality multidisciplinary education, and no one will ask for jobs but will be equipped with some skill to earn a living. Some will be able to establish their own production units and become job givers. With this objective, multidisciplinary education has been suggested. The last line of the Policy says that by 2040 “the entire policy will be in an operational mode, following which another comprehensive review will be undertaken”. Are we on time or have missed the target already? The most important agenda today is to make school education multidisciplinary, including skill areas with academics to make every school pass become self-employable.

Transformation in education is not as easy as it is in other sectors. The roads can be dug and remade but how does one change the school or college building constructed at an inappropriate location, or personnel appointed, especially teachers, through erroneous nay corrupt process. We are aware of the politicians in jail on account of teacher recruitment scams. A teacher, on an average, serves for thirty years and teaches three generations. A good teacher can make or mar a whole village or community. The school teachers were not well-trained and recruitment processes were also not transparent. Since 2023, the Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) has been started for preparing school teachers, which is a rigorous teacher education programme. The programme, started as per the recommendation of the NEP 2020, is ambitious and transformative. It is said that ITEP has not been well-designed and implemented. Similarly, we are delayed in preparing the textbooks. Text-books based on NEP 2020 have not been prepared in four years. We need to accelerate the process of textbook preparation. Likewise, in higher education, the Human Resource Development Centres have been renamed and reformatted as the Madanmohan Malviya Teacher Training Centre (MMTTC), but the Directors of the MMTTCs are not very happy with the format. This also needs a quick review. The purpose of raising this issue is that the planning is good but the implementing agencies are not doing adequate homework. The Government has done a good job in coming up with a good Policy but indications are that implementation is weak.

Teachers are the backbone of a robust education system, which our Prime Minister has time and again emphasised. On August 7 2020, after the release of the NEP 2020, the PM addressed the teachers and emphasised that the teachers teaching the kids do the most important job. They build the Foundation. We need to study and report — has the training for Foundation been designed and started? The ITEP (Foundation) will be the most crucial. Indications are that it is not so well planned. We have still not started the training of the Aanganwadi workers on the lines suggested by the NEP 2020.

During the Modi 1.0, the Government had provided an unprecedented option to the in-service untrained Elementary School teachers to undergo mandatory training as per the RTE Act 2009 at an affordable price. The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education, was given this assignment. More than 12 lakh teachers benefitted from this decision. The Aanganwadi teachers can be provided a similar facility so that they can obtain the training prescribed by the NEP 2020. This will not only help the in-service Aanganwadi workers but also augment the quality of our Aanganwadis which primarily serve the children from the less privileged families. This was the roadmap PM gave to the nation in his maiden speech to the Parliament on June 11, 2014. He had said we need to bring good education to the rural children as they are deprived of good schools and good teachers. By providing good training to Aanganwadi teachers and building a relevant ITEP Foundation, we would be fulfilling the dream of our PM, a crucial need of the nation towards attaining the goal of Vikshit Bharat 2047.

Quality education is the most important agenda for Vikshit Bharat 2047, and the catalytic agent of affecting this change will be the teachers, from Foundation to the Master’s level. The focus should be on training of pre-service and re-training of in-service teachers. As PM said in his address on August 7, 2020, during the Conclave on National Education Policy - “The purpose of education is to make good human beings with skill and expertise. Enlightened human beings can be created by teachers.” The teacher education institutions should be supported to provide quality training to teachers. With Dharmendra Pradhan at the helm of affairs, it is expected that Education will experience unprecedented transformation, especially in teacher education.

The author is a Professor of Education and a Trustee of the India Policy Foundation. He specialises in Educational Policy. Views expressed are personal