Contradictory messages and silence on critical issues
The New Education Policy pays obeisance to school teachers but while the policy makes some interesting recommendations, there is no radical change in the offing that will improve the quality of teaching or the working conditions of the all-important teacher.
Labour force surveys that yield estimates on job numbers are designed to capture work inputs in 'normal' situations. The concepts and methodology used can lead to errors in estimates during a lockdown when production has been completely or partially halted.
The National Education Policy lacks a coherent strategy to strengthen public education. It does not own the narrative of education as a public good, instead the policy pushes for private practices antithetical to public goals.
Some Innovations, Some Familiar Prescriptions, Many Unrealistic Timelines
The New Education Policy has new as well as old interesting ideas on school education but execution will call for a change in mindsets to broaden horizons and the training of a vast number of highly skilled teachers, all within impossible timelines.
The abysmally low participation of women in paid work in India even today is very worrying. Policy interventions should look at how to encourage higher work participation, through offers of higher wages and better social security.
Wishing Away Structural Problems, Wishing a Magical Solution
The National Education Policy 2020 does not address the structural problems in higher education today. It instead merely rejigs the existing edifice, creates new institutions & reimagines the system, all in the hope that a new, creative one will then emerge.
Sign up for The India Forum newsletter
Get new articles delivered to your inbox every week.
Support The India Forum
For thoughtful analysis & commentary that is without noise, abuse and fake news, support The India Forum..
To keep access free for all & for an ad-free experience, please donate what you can:
(If you have donated already, thank you. Please do so again next year.)
The draft Environment Impact Notification 2020 has been widely criticised because it is not designed to protect the environment. It will further weaken the 2006 EIA and rather than deter violations, encourage them. The poorly drafted rules must be withdrawn.
Academic freedom is about the right to study, teach and research a diversity of viewpoints. Yet, this right that is so crucial for the pursuit of knowledge has seen widespread attacks in colleges and universities across India.
The imperial Central Vista in Delhi has been transformed since 1947 into a symbol of democratic India. But the proposed redevelopment will reduce public space, highlight the spectacle of government and seems to reflect the authoritarian turn in our democracy.
Supply-side measures to revive the economy run the risk of ending up in short growth bursts that are also not inclusive. A policy that pushes domestic demand, especially in rural India, is a better strategy for sustained growth.
A photo essay on the Brahma Kshatriyas of Hyderabad, whose association with the Mughal and the Nizam’s administration produced a unique syncretic culture.
'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’. Physicist Robert Oppenheimer recalled these lines from the Gita after watching the first nuclear test in July 1945. With the world now sitting on a huge nuclear stockpile, can we hope to avoid that destruction?
The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrates that the discipline of public health needs to be open towards a plurality of ideas and paradigms. Else it could end up being reductionist and suited to authoritarian governance and commercial interests.
The ecological destruction from the Baghjan gas well blowout is part of the story of Assam’s economic development. Resource extraction has been foundational to the logic of politics in Assam but has marginalised local communities.
Why does the India-China border flare-up with regularity? For China, it is not about determining where the boundary lies, it is about establishing primacy.
Multiple disasters and mass catastrophes have been on display in the migrant crises following the Covid-19 lockdown. In its light, India’s constitutionalism might be called ‘Exodus Constitutionalism’, a development that threatens to devalue citizenship.
"Tiffin" is a snack that keeps you going until the next meal. Tiffin also conveys the sense of an occasion where you engage in friendly conversation and discussion. In that spirit, “Tiffin”-- also linked to our acronym TIF -- is a new section that will offer articles covering topics other than “contemporary issues”.
