Committee submits draft education policy

Formulation of the policy only after open discussion

A committee set up to draft a new education policy submitted its report along with recommendations to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry here on Friday.

The five-member panel, headed by former Cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian, presented its report to the HRD Minister Smriti Irani 26 days after expiry of its term on April 30.

“The committee for the evolution of a national education policy has submitted the report containing its recommendations to the HRD ministry. The minister thanked the chairman and all members of the committee for their commitment and efforts,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry, however, refrained from sharing the committee’s report and its recommendations on the formulation of a new education policy as it was decided to keep them “confidential for now”.

“The contents of the report cannot be shared now as it is being examined by the ministry,” an official said.

While addressing a conference in New Delhi, Smriti recently said that a new education policy will be presented to the nation only after holding an “open discussion” with the state governments and assimilating all the points of view into the report once the Subramanian Committee submits the draft of the policy.

Though the ministry remained tight-lipped on the recommendations made in the draft report, the panel was learnt to have recommended introduction of the national academic services for recruitment of teachers, a proposal first mooted in the late 1980s’ when P V Narshima Rao was the HRD minister.

The panel has also suggested for overhauling the current system of the recruitment of vice-chancellors, highlighting various loopholes in the existing process for such appointments and past irregularities. Formulation of the draft of a national education was a daunting task for the five-member-committee as it required them to examine a “large body of outcome documents”, thousands of recommendations and suggestions received by the HRD ministry over the last one year.