Ex-Isro chief Kasturirangan to head committee on national education policy

The Union human resource development (HRD) ministry on Monday appointed an eight-member committee headed by K Kasturirangan to draft the new national education policy. The last national education policy was made in 1989.

The government said the committee, led by Kasturirangan, a former chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), would consider inputs provided by the TSR Subramanian Committee, which was earlier supposed to draft the policy. 

The five-member Subramanian panel had submitted its report to the government in May 2016, but it was kept in abeyance. The government felt the Subramanian committee report was a “mere compilation” of various reports and “a fresh and comprehensive report” was required.

Subramanian, a former cabinet secretary, had also fallen out with former HRD minister Smriti Irani over making his report public for a wider discussion. But Irani insisted the report could be made public only after feedback from the states.  Irani was quoted as saying the government didn’t want the report to become the legacy of one person. 

The Subramanian committee had suggested various reforms, including raising the outlay on education to 6 per cent of the gross domestic product; setting up an India Education Service with cadre-controlling authority with the HRD ministry; compulsory licensing of teachers at government and private schools; no detention till Class V; extension of mid-day meal scheme to secondary students and allowing foreign universities to open campuses in India.

HRD ministry officials said the Kasturirangan committee would consider the Subramanian committee report in detail and also consider inputs received from members of Parliament, teachers, students and educationists.

“The council (Kasturirangan committee) will start its work with immediate effect,” the government said in a statement. 

The official, however, didn’t provide a timeline for the new committee to finish its work.

The members of the Kasturirangan committee include Vasudha Kamat, former vice-chancellor of SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai; K J Alphonse, former bureaucrat from Kerala; and Manjul Bhargava, professor of mathematics at Princeton University. 

The others on the committee are: Ram Shankar Kureel, vice-chancellor of BR Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhow; T V Kattimani, vice-chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak; Krishna Mohan Tripathy, former chairperson of Uttar Pradesh High School and Intermediate Examination Board; Mazhar Asif, professor of Persian at Gauhati University; and M K Shridhar, former member secretary of Karnataka Innovation Council and Karnataka Knowledge Commission.