He also opined that the government should provide free education to every individual from the age of 3 years till senior secondary and the Centre should fund states
Mohd Aasif | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Senior Supreme Court lawyer and rights activist Prashant Bhushan has said that the Central government should come out with rules to provide 6 per cent of GDP for education.
Addressing an online ‘save education convention’ organised by the All India Save Education Committee to brainstorm on the New Education Policy on Sunday, he also opined that the government should provide free education to every individual from the age of 3 years till senior secondary and the Centre should fund states.
He emphasised the need for extensive consultations before formulating any education policy with its real contenders, stakeholders and experts.
Both the Centre and states can make the policies on education after the 42nd amendment in the Constitution provided that the state cannot override the policies outlined by the Centre.
Pointing towards the diversity of the Indian demography, he said the states should design the education policies in a ‘decentralised’ way, making it conducive to the condition of a particular state. Yet, Bhushan said, “Centre can force a state to remain on the basic constitutional attributes of the policy making, i.e., there has to be secular and scientific temperament in the education”.
“Centre can make centralised regulatory bodies to maintain the minimum standard of the education and its inseminating institutions.”
On the language and medium of instruction, the activist-lawyer said, “It should be vernacular.” Citing the example of implementing the vernacular language by China, he said that the country achieved success in that.
Though Bhushan had talked about the rights of the Central government and the Constitutional submission of the state to the Centre, he asked his audience to doubt the policies of the Central government.
“Whatever the government of the current regime has done, it was done to destroy the education system, critical thinking and the scientific temper of the country”, he added.
Though the government had assured of providing funds as recommended by the Kothari commission, Bhushan said, “Government has not taken even a single step to arrange funds for the education”.
Talking about private players in education, he said, “Allowing private educational institutions does not mean that the government shirks off its responsibility of providing education”.