My thoughts on the New Education Policy - Part I

Few things in the newly announced National Education Policy remind me of my time nearly 50-60 years back. There is resonance with the policy but lots of discordant notes with the current education ecosystem. 

5+3+3: Resonates with my schooling days, 1961 to 1971. First 5 years were in a ‘prathamik vidyalay / shala’ or primary school. ‘Prathamik vidyalay / shala’ was most popular. In Indore where I grew up, very few people used English nomenclature in those days. Next 3 were in a ‘madhyamik vidyalay’ or middle / secondary school. Finally, the last 3 were in an ‘uchhatar madhyamik Vidyalay’ or higher secondary school. My primary school was ‘Hindi Prathamik Vidyalaya Kramank 7’. From there, I moved to Vaishnav Uchhatar Madhymik Vidyalaya (aka Vaishnav Higher Secondary School) for 3+3. Primary school had no English, only Hindi. We learnt English from 6^th year onwards starting from alphabets. 

Languages: Three languages or ‘tri-bhashi’ formula was the talk of the town, resonates with the debate that is beginning now. A major anti English movement started in North India and an anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu at that time. For the tri-language formula, it was mostly Hindi as the higher language followed by English and Sanskrit. There were few schools where either Marathi or Urdu were options for higher language. Options for French, German etc. didn’t exist in Indore in my time. Because of this, the MP Board removed English from the curriculum. Thus, the last year of 5+3+3 was Hindi, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, No English!. I learnt English as a secondary language partly in the school (0+3+2), learnt further in BITS including spoken English and developed it further in TCS! 

Interdisciplinary: In BITS, Prof. CR Mitra (then Director of BITS) introduced one of the most revolutionary engineering graduate programs. Some of the ideas in the policy interestingly resonate with the purpose of the program Prof Mitra and his academic colleagues implemented. I feel Prof. CR Mitra is most accomplished but unfortunately an uncelebrated educationist in India. He introduced a number of innovations. Humanities courses, a language laboratory where students could practice spoken English, a course in technical report writing etc were part of this innovation. Let me recall some of these courses - Philosophy, Symbolic Logic, Economics, Econometrics, Introduction to Political Science, Modern Constitutions, History and Music. These courses have helped me understand and get a better appreciation of:

1. Economists views on economy, its deeper aspects and day to day nuances 
2. Western and Indian philosophies
3. All ‘isms’ - capitalism, imperialism, communism and its derivatives such as Leninism, Maoism; forms of democracies etc. 
4. Fine elements of constitutions of India, United States of America, British customs and conventions, parliamentary and presidential form of Government etc
5. And more....

Even in the engineering curriculum, Circuit Theory and Fluid Mechanics was combined into a single course called Transport Phenomenon and taught by Prof Rathore, a young IITK PhD. 

Even in the school we had a course called ‘Manav dharma’ that was not part of the MP Secondary Board curriculum but to teach philosophy and values of humanity. The course was probably ahead of its time but timely. Ethics was a major thread that ran through the course. 

Flexibility: Prof. Mitra introduced a concept called horizontal and vertical mobility whereby one could take courses across departments and also accelerate finishing a course ahead of time. Formal dual degree program was launched. One of our batchmates whose primary degree was MSc Chemistry took courses in Chemical Engineering and requested for BE (Honours) in Chemical Engineering and was granted the degree. 

Practice: Practice School program of BITS was introduced in 1974. At the core was the practical training in companies. At that time, it comprised two summer internships and one full semester. In early times, many of us did internships in national research laboratories – NPL, CEERI, LRDE and many more. It was a powerful way to learn application of scientific theories and engineering principles. One long term impact on me has been that I take student internships very seriously. The student is with you not only to get practical training but also to strengthen and reinforce the degree. I have found many managers in companies see students as a cheap resource. Yes, they are cost effective resources. But organizations have to ensure that the work assigned helps embellish their degree. . 

Underlying all of above was the sincerity of the Institutions (right from Hindi Prathamik Vidyalaya Kramank 7 to IITB), of our teachers and the unbelievably low cost of such a quality education. 

One of the discordant notes is that the cost of education has skyrocketed. Higher education is out of reach of lower middle class today.  I was educated nearly free and reap the benefits every day. Education has become a business which it should not be. 

Despite success with IITs, IIMs, NIITs, IIITs, NIDs, Kendriya Vidyalay’s and many many more, Government has not asserted on the quality of institutions it has created and demanded the same standards from private institutions. There are more discordant notes of which I will write again. It is however my hope that the resonance continues as National Education Policy gets implemented and discordant notes die.