Kapil Sibal moving too fast with reforms

Updated on: Friday, October 30, 2009

Nagpur: Everybody felt that the Indian school education system needed radical changes. But nobody expected things to happen at lightning pace.

Every other day, newspapers across the country have been carrying announcements by either the CBSE board or the Union human resources minister Kapil Sibal. Even the Maharashtra government has not been far behind. The reforms are coming at jetspeed so much so that schools are finding it tough to keep abreast of it despite a slew of awareness programmes being planned. A section of educationists now feel that Sibal needs to slow down a bit as the recipients of his reforms may not be ready to embrace them.

When he took over as the HRD minister in June, Sibal layed out his 100-day plan. He has announced radical reforms but perhaps done it in haste without testing it. Several of his reforms, like making CBSE Std X exam optional, has shocked the country. Experts say that not testing the reforms could lead to a collapse of the education system.

"The minister is going too fast. He is not giving anybody the time to react. I think all the reforms he has been announcing one after another should have had a pilot run," said Akhilesh Chandra Chaturvedi, the principal of Delhi Public School.

The schools in the city are still in the dark about all the new rules. "We are not able to connect on what is going on. The CBSE has informed us that they will be conducting a workshop shortly where everything will be explained," Chaturvedi added.

Devendra Burghate, principal of Shivaji Science College, agrees with Chaturvedi. "The reforms are being implemented in haste and without giving a thought. It is not good for the country. The minister, as well as Central Board, is perhaps going too speedily with the new reforms. If you really want to bring radical changes in education system, it has to be taken step by step and set in a time frame. Any decision taken hastily will lead to collapse of the entire system," he said.

According to Burghate, it's easy to take decisions sitting in Delhi, but very difficult to actually implement them at the grass roots. "The CBSE has not made it clear on how to admit students in Std XI in state board schools. Now if they award grades, how can we evaluate their performance as compared to state board students," he said.

Vidarbha Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh president Dattatray Mirzapure feels that Sibal's decisions will spell a doom for the entire education system in the country. "Not just the Centre, but even state government are making changes without taking the teachers, parents and students into confidence. Such major decisions needed the consent of all parties that are going to be affected. He should have at least involved teachers' organizations in the decision-making," he said.

Mirzapure also feels that the Maharashtra government's decision to introduce ATKT in Std X will further degrade the system. "The importance of examination will be reduced drastically due to this. Ditto with making class X exam optional" he said.

The principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya (Vayusena Nagar) has contrarian views. "This should have been done much earlier," said Joy Joseph. "In fact, Sibal has come out with changes that will benefit the entire education sector in the country. I feel the government is on the right track by introducing changes which are already in place at the international level."

On problems in admission to class XI, Joseph says it will not lead to too much trouble as CBSE will issue guidelines. soon. "As far as Kendriya Vidyalayas are concerned, we will be receiving guidelines from our KV Sanghathan which will be implemented after careful planning. For other junior colleges, they have to take decision individually," he said.

The director of Tuli Public School, Urvashi Yashroy while endorsing Joseph's views, complimented Sibal's efforts for streamlining the education system. "Those radical changes were necessary in the wake of developments all over the world. The Central Board is taking enough care to pass guidelines on how to implement the system. They had recently conducted a workshop on those reforms where our teachers participated. Every change has been explained through well-prepared modules. This should have been done long back. I don't think he is going too fast at the moment," she said.

Kapil Sibal moving too fast with reforms

More Education news