K. Kasturirangan, Ex-ISRO Chief to Chair the Nine-Member Committee for Finalising National Education Policy

The wait would finally be over for a new Education Policy. Padma Vibhushan awardee and former head ISRO, Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan is appointed as the Chairman of the nine-member panel to finalise the draft of New Education Policy.

Other members of the panel include the Vice-Chancellor of SNDT University, Mumbai, and educationist Vasudha Kamat; retired bureaucrat K.J. Alphonse; Princeton University Mathematics professor Manjul Bhargava; Baba Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhau, Vice-Chancellor Ram Shankar Kureel who has written on inclusion of the marginal in mainstream education; Vice-Chancelllor of Tribal University, Amarkantak, TV Kattamani; KM Tripathy from Uttar Pradesh; Gauhati University Persian language professor Mahzar Asif, and CABE member M.K. Shridhar.

The National Policy of Education in India was first formulated in 1968 emphasizing on the improvement of quality and development of science and technology blended with social values. In 1986, the NPE was adopted by the Parliament. Under the Ramamurti committee, NPE 1986 was revised in 1992 envisaging a National system of education which implied that “up to a given level, all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex, have access to education of a comparative quality”.  

In 2015, a committee was formed under the chairmanship of TSR Subramanian to give inputs for formulating a New Education Policy under the then HRD Minister, Smriti Irani. After 11 months of the committee formulation, on October 1, 2016, the draft of National Education Policy 2016 was released. 

The recommendations, primarily addressing early childhood education, and quality improvement at all levels were implemented in bits and pieces. Few days back, Prakash Javadekar, Minister HRD promised the finalization of NEP this year. 

A release by the HRD Ministry said, “The council will start its work from immediate effect. In an exhaustive democratic exercise carried for last 30 months the HRD ministry has received thousands of suggestions from, educationists, teachers, experts, students and other stakeholders from across the country. Rajya Sabha debated the issues and a special education dialogue was organized in which 48 MPs from all parties participated. Many MPs have given their views in writing. MyGov platform collected views from more than 26, 000 people.” 

All the inputs by the TSR Subramaniam committee will be considered by the committee in making its final draft.