New Education Policy

The Government of India (GoI) has accepted the New Education Policy (NEP).  The policy document reminds me of tender specification that we make for any thing that we wish to purchase.  Tender specifications are mandatory as per  GoI rules. We have to make them and put them up in public portal so that we get bids in a fair manner.  The problem, as Appa says, is that Tender document are made such that it can never be fulfilled.  This is exactly what NEP document is.  It is a lofty, aspirational document completely cut-off from the reality.  If GoI can deliver the aspirations of this document, I would be ecstatic.  However, I am not too hopeful.

I will highlight only two issues in this blog.

The first issue is that of caste.  It is conspicuous by its absence as KumKum Roy has pointed out in her column.  How much ever we would like to wish it away, it exists.  It exists solely to make life miserable for those who belong to the marginalized sections, the dalits, and the adivasis (Tribes).  As an upper caste and upper class person who had a privileged upbringing, I got a rude awakening when I attended the annual Asha India conference in a small UP village some years ago.  In the morning, a child handed me the breakfast.  I accepted it from the child and started eating.  Immediately, a man who taught at an NGO came up to me and asked me to follow him.  I was startled but went with him.  He took the plate away from me and asked me to wash my hands.  I was really puzzled.  Seeing me puzzled look, he explained.  That child, he said, is a Dalit and you are an upper caste.  You cannot accept food from him. Wash your hands.

I was aghast.  I took the plate away from him and walked off.

It was then I realized that despite all that our Constitution says, all the protection that is granted through various laws, caste as a brute reality exists. And Dalit and Adivasi children are going to be discriminated and denied education unless we actively try to change the scenario.  So it is very disappointing that the NEP does not even address this concern.

The second point is about the medium of instruction.  It is commendable that NEP acknowledges that children should be taught in their mother tongue. However, the problem is that we have many different languages.  The Constitution acknowledges only 22 languages.  Missing are many adivasi languages.  This issue was brought out very poignantly in the movie Newton starring Rajkummar Rao and Anjali Patil.  The school teacher, an Adivasi, laments that the children do not understand the textbook because it is in Hindi and the contents are so disconnected from their day to day life.  She says that she tries to explain the content in Gondi, their language, but it is difficult. 

Is NCERT, who are responsible for the textbooks, going to design and write textbooks that will cater to these children?

The next level of complication arises with migrant labour population as they move across states.  What happens when a child born to Bihari parents, who speak Maithili, move to Tamilnadu, where Tamil is spoken.  The two languages are not even remotely similar.  So how will we teach this child.  Of course, states like Kerala take special care.  The teachers make effort to teach Malayalam to non-Malayalam children. But how many states will make this effort?

Already Kendriya Vidyalaya (Central Schools) have said that the medium of instruction will be English and Hindi because these schools cater to children whose parents are in transferable jobs. 

So how is GoI and more importantly the State governments (for Education is on the concurrent list and thus, becomes the responsibility of the State) going to ensure that children are taught in their mother tongue?

Policy making is one aspect.  It is the delivery which is important.