Digvijaya Singh: ‘NEET paper leak shows how BJP functions…corrupt people chosen as VCs’

The chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, Digvijaya Singh spoke with Careers360 about how NEP 2020 is moving education from public spending to private spending and the urgent need for a meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) to bring all states on board to bring in changes. Singh, a Congress MP and former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, stressed on the need to review the candidates being selected as vice chancellors and directors in higher education institutions. Edited excerpts:

You have been reviewing the education system of the country. What has been your assessment, apart from what we have seen in the reports?

My point has been that it is the foundation, the primary school, which is of utmost importance. From Day 1, I wanted to improve the quality of education in government primary schools. We had introduced English as one of the subjects as well. English can be called a global language, so we can't keep students away. I have been criticised for that. As a CM also, my focus was to create 100% literacy and the highest jump in literacy was during my tenure in 10 years. We were way down in the list but we went ahead, especially in female literacy.

We started schools of excellence in the districts. The project was given to the collector – to choose the best possible teacher and students, which sort of became the institutions where everyone wanted to send their children.

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I feel school education deserves more attention than higher education – requires more investment. Unfortunately, teachers are being appointed on contract basis. They do not know if they will continue next year. If the quality of teachers is not good, whom are you training? Training is an important component, be it for school or higher education.

When I got this opportunity to be part of the committee, we had the National Education Policy 2020. However, as a chairman of the standing committee, which had majority BJP MPs, I have my own objections to some of the issues in NEP 2020. All of NEP is not bad, but we had differences of opinion on some issues.

If you could elaborate on your concerns with NEP 2020?

The major issue is that NEP 2020 is trying to bring school education under clusters. They are closing down government schools. My policy has always been to provide access first and then excellence. With schools being closed down you are denying access. You cannot expect children to walk 5-6 km to go to school. They are saying that PM SHRI schools will provide transport, but in the majority of areas the transport system is really not functional.

Now that the schools have closed down, the options are either keep the children out of school or pay fees in private school.

The NEP is moving from public spending to private spending, which I think is a basic point of disagreement. We have been promising over the years that we must provide education with 6% of GDP. It is not forthcoming, we (Congress) also did not do it. You can’t become a developed country until you provide the best possible education.

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Do you think NEP 2020 being brought in without introduction and discussion in the Parliament was a problem?

Education is a part of the concurrent list. Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) is an organisation where the state governments are also part of it. But CABE has not met since 2019, therefore the NEP 2020 itself was not discussed.

Almost three states are being denied funds of the Samagra Siksha Abhiyan. This is not the right way to do it. We have even mentioned it in our report and even the BJP parliamentarians supported it.

India is a diverse country and NEP has to be accepted by all in totality. Therefore, the government of India should try their best to convince all the states to implement NEP.

How binding are the parliamentary recommendations on the government?

Not at all. But what is important is we have brought it into the public domain. The public has to understand this and convince their MPs to take these issues where the government is forced to bring the changes.

What changes do you think our school education requires?

I was never in favour of the no-detention policy. There has to be a filtration in Classes 5 and 8. Those children who are not good at studies, maybe good at arts, culture, sports, music. You have to provide them with skills. After Class 8 if the child is not doing well in studies he should slowly be moved towards imparting skills. There should be more skill development centres.

The Government of India did come up with a Skill India programme, but we had vocational education in schools, which did not work out. It didn't work because the number of skill options in China is in the thousands, here it is not so. The second step is we have to create enough options for students to take up skills.

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The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya systems have been very successful. We have proposed in our report also that there should be more JNV’s. Kendriya Vidyalaya’s standards are quite good but they have problems with contractual appointments, even though there is no shortage of funds.

We are completely against contractual appointments.

What is your assessment of the higher education system, following the reviews and visits?

As part of the higher education changes, they have brought in the credit system. They have not been able to sort of define across the board. Some universities have done it but there is no lateral policy, which should have been a part of.

What is important is the placement of the people who have to implement NEP – the vice chancellors, the professors, the directors. But the kind of people this government has appointed in the last 11 years, I am sorry to say but most corrupt people have been chosen. This is their failure.

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Then the other is contractual appointment. The quality of faculty has to be taken care of and the quality of training. The new university guidelines have come in wherein it is not important for vice chancellors to have a certain education background. This is something that has to be taken up nationally.

How do you think reservation in private universities can be implemented?

Private universities are doing well. Therefore, we wanted to give Article 15(5) and have reservations in private universities. But the reservation should be funded by the government. The fees reimbursement should be by the government of the state similar to Article 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009. I have always been supportive of reservation.

The committee talks about following the RTE model of reimbursement, but it is not being followed in letter and spirit across the country. What are your views?

Most institutions are either not giving or they are not receiving the reimbursement. Some of the institutions have declared their schools as minority, by bringing few minorities into their trust.This is how provisions of RTE Act are being diluted. But the fact remains that it is a progressive law and has to be implemented strongly.

You have spoken about the National Testing Agency (NTA) during your speech in the Rajya Sabha as well. What has been your assessment of NTA?

I don’t want to name the gentleman, but he was appointed as the professor in management at Jabalpur University, for which he was not qualified. I had raised this issue with the Governor, I was chief minister at that time. After BJP came, he became the chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Service Commission.

There were charges against him. So he resigned and went to Chattisgarh and became the chairman of the commission there. There too there were charges against him, but he was made the chairman of UPSC. Every time he gets into some corruption, he is promoted.

Then ultimately he landed at NTA and then there was the NEET paper leak. This is how the BJP functions. How do you justify a person who has corruption charges being given a position of power. If such people are supported what will happen to the country’s institutions?

I have a problem with centralisation. I am a Gandhian who believes in decentralisation.

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You recently visited Auroville. What were your takeaways from the visit?

The idea of Auroville is based on autonomy and self governance. The charter of mother sort of extends this not only to national but to the international community. The kind of atmosphere has to be created within, which unfortuantely is being slowly destroyed. The governing body which controls the management of Auroville says it should be about those people who have been involved in Aurobindo’s ideas and philosophy. It is now being used as another government institution. But then, it loses the very character of Auroville.

Any city’s master plan has to be approved by the state government laws as well. In India, the education ministry has approved the master plan. The ministry has no say in it but it has been accepted by Aurovillains, not by all. But what we are saying is don’t impose it as it goes against the very character of the place.

According to you, is there anything good this government has done?

They have done excellent marketing in the last 11 years.