The ‘3Cs’ which haunt Indian education today

• The Union Government has been implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 without consulting State governments on its implementation.

• The government has coerced State governments to implement the PM-SHRI scheme of model schools, withholding the funds due to them under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

• The government has given itself near monopoly power in the selection of Vice-Chancellors in State universities, a threat to federalism.

Commercialisation

• The Narendra Modi government has been commercialising the education system in full compliance with the NEP.

• The NEP has led to the closure and consolidation of 89,441 public schools and the establishment of 42,944 additional private schools.

• The government has introduced the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) as a replacement to the University Grants Commission’s system of block-grants.

• Between 78% to 100% of these loans are being repaid by universities through student fees.

• The increasing prevalence of corruption in the education systems is a manifestation of this commercialisation.

Commercialisation

• The Union Government’s third thrust is on communalisation, fulfilling the ideological project of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

• Textbooks of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have been revised to sanitise Indian history.

• The large-scale hiring of professors from regime-friendly ideological backgrounds has been observed in universities.

• The UGC’s attempts to dilute the qualifications for professorships and vice-chancellorships are another ploy to enable the influx of educationists driven by ideological considerations rather than academic ideals.

• The consequences of this single-minded push for centralization, commercialization, and communalization have fallen squarely on students.