Starting from Right to Education to the latest proposal of replacing the University Grants Commission (UGC) - in recent years, many changes have been made to our education system. But without being too critical it can be safely said that all these changes have so far not been able to improve the standard of education in our country. Rather, the changes have created an air of uncertainty among the students. Students are virtually clueless about their future. They do not know what changes will come next and what will happen to their career plan? For example, students of various central universities are still agitating over the reduction of seats for M. Phil and PhD. As usual, students of Delhi’s Jahwarlal Nehru University (JNU) were at the forefront of this agitation. So, it was easy for the authorities to claim that those students were not at all interested in their studies and that they were only interested in occupying the seats to pursue their political careers. But the explanation did not answer the moot question. What will happen to those students who are eligible to continue their studies further after obtaining Master degrees but would not be able do so because the universities have suddenly reduced the intake of students? Are there any alternatives for them? The authorities have no answer.
The authorities will not be able to answer these questions as these decisions were taken more to satisfy their own egos rather than keeping the need of our education system in mind. As a matter of fact the authorities have failed to realise that education system in our country needs a total overhauling from primary to the highest level. Effecting changes in one segment ignoring the problems of other sectors will further weaken the system. There should be comprehensive policy to make education meaningful. Adequate number of teachers and a common syllabus for students all over the country are the need of the day. Further, it is time to think whether education should be on the concurrent list or not as this is creating more problems than solutions. For example, recently the Centre has announced that history of emergency will become part of the curriculum soon. But the Centre was not the only one to do so. Few years ago the West Bengal government included Singur Movement in curriculum. Many other state governments have also burdened the students by including their favourite topics in the syllabus taking advantage of education being in the concurrent list. As there is common syllabus, when a student enters into national level, on most occasions, he or she will have to start afresh as the syllabus he or she followed was completely different.
In such a scenario, steps should be taken to remove the flaws prevailing in our education system. Cosmetic measures such as replacing UGC by another body will serve no purpose. At the same time disparities between in Central and state universities should be removed. It should be ensured that quality teachers are available in all the educational institutions. Only then Right to Education will become meaningful.
