Apropos of edit “Reforming education” (FE, June 21), if one goes by the far-reaching recommendations of the TSR Subramanian committee report on a new national policy on education, there is enough that the government must seriously consider implementing at the earliest. It backs the setting up of a standing Education Commission to continually assess the changing circumstances of the education sector and advise the HRD ministry on the need to upgrade or change policy.
The panel gives a ‘road-map’ for improving the quality of education. The panel backing the strict implementation of the JM Lyngdoh committee’s recommendation of ‘derecognising’ the student outfits explicitly based on religious or caste or mainstream party lines at the university level merits serious consideration. Our national universities can’t be allowed to be used as a breeding ground for political ideology—not in the name of the “freedom of expression”.
As regards capitation fees, there has to be some regulatory mechanism for keeping tabs on the unbridled menace of the commercialisation of higher education, especially in professional courses. Their quality of education should be the sole criteria of figuring out their market value. In any case, the need of the hour is that the government rises to the occasion by making all-out efforts to ensure the panel’s recommendations are implemented. Any dithering here will prove highly injurious to the educational health of the nation.
