The State has formally begun scrutiny of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to study its ramifications on the higher education sector. The Kerala State Higher Education Council has constituted a six-member committee, chaired by academician Prabhat Patnaik, to examine the provisions of the policy. The expert panel will also seek the views of all sections of society, including university and college teachers, on the matter. The council’s observations will later be submitted to the State and Central governments.
Council vice chairman Rajan Gurukkal P.M.; National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, Vice Chancellor N.V. Varghese; Gangan Prathap of the National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology; writer K. Satchidanandan; and Kumkum Roy of the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; are the other members of the committee.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel said the NEP was bound to ‘sever’ public institutions of higher learning including State-run universities in the country.
Higher spending
He welcomed the Centre’s plan to earmark 6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for education and the target of achieving a Gross Enrollment Ratio (GEP) of 50% in higher education by 2035. He, however, criticised the lack of any financial assistance to States to achieve the goal. Besides, the policy had been fashioned in a manner that it enabled centralisation of powers in the education sector.
He said the State supported the proposed multiple entry and exit system, four-year degree programmes, multidisciplinary study, instituting an Academic Bank of Credit and facilitating credit mobility. On the move to establish a Higher Education Commission of India by subsuming existing agencies, Dr. Jaleel expressed concerns that it could have far-reaching powers that went beyond coordinating and laying down guidelines to maintain standards of higher education.
