JOIN USThe director of National Council of Educational Research and Training Parvin Sinclair has tendered resignation half way into her tenure.
Sinclair initiated revision of the national curriculum framework in the last month of the UPA rule, a move that has not gone down well with Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani. The revision process appears to have upset Dinanath Batra, national president of the Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, an outfit linked to the RSS.
Batra, who has courted controversy because of his advocacy of Hindu texts in schools, took serious exception to the NCERT move in July, accusing the council of revising the curriculum “in a hurry”.
At the NCERT national executive committee meeting in September, Irani asked Sinclair to take prior approval of the HRD Ministry before implementing a new programme or activity, sources said.
Moreover, the minister took note of an old case of alleged irregularity in purchase of papers worth Rs 50 crore by NCERT during Sinclair’s term, and threatened her of initiating a fresh probe into the issue.
Within two weeks, the NCERT director resigned from the post, sources confirmed, but it is unclear at the moment if the resignation has been accepted.
The irregularity originated in a period prior to Sinclair's appointment. The NCERT had floated a tender for supply of large quantity of papers.
As per the rules, papers should be tested for its quality before the purchase, but Sinclair allegedly gave the go ahead to the supply by a vendor selected through bidding on the condition that the stock would be tested at a later date.
Subsequently, a complaint was lodged with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). In mid-2012, the HRD Ministry initiated a probe after the complaint was forwarded to it by the CVC.
The ministry continued with its enquiry for sometime and sought a clarification from the NCERT. But it did not arrive at any conclusion and later shelved the matter.
“It was a case of procedural lapse not any financial irregularity. The NCERT did not incur any financial loss by purchasing papers in this manner,” sources added.
Sinclair, however, did not respond to Deccan Herald’s phone calls and text messages.
A mathematician of repute, Sinclair was the former pro-vice chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University and took over as the NCERT director in January 2012 on a five-year term.