On the lines of the Education Commission suggested by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has already started work on the commission that will formulate a new education policy by next year. This assumes significance as the country?s present education system is based on the National Policy on Education of 1986. The new policy is expected to look at the entire spectrum of education and learning.
?We are planning to setup an education commission on the lines of the D S Kothari Commission of 1964-66 that will chalk out the new education policy. Some work has started and consultations with all stakeholders, including the civil society, will take a year after which the new policy will be ready,? said a ministry official.
The Kothari commission consisted of 16 members, 11 being Indians and 5 foreign experts and set up 12 task forces and 7 working groups for higher, technical and agricultural education besides educational finance and teacher training, among others.
The existing policy ? based on the framework set in 1986 ? talks about free and compulsory education along with development of languages and emphasises on education for industry and agriculture. At the secondary education level, it asks for increased technical and vocational education. It is at the university level education where the old policy cautions on the number of students being enrolled in the university system and if that increase is in tandem with the existing infrastructural facilities like libraries and laboratories. It was this policy which recommended a 10+2+3 pattern of education structure.
In fact, for vocational education, the Kothari Commission had suggested that for a majority of occupations, university degrees were not necessary; and these jobs could be competently performed by trained higher secondary students. The commission said that it should be possible to divert at least 50% of students completing 10 year education to the vocational stream, which would reduce the pressure on the universities and also prepare students for gainful employment.
