(a) whether the Government has called a meeting with the State Education
Ministers to build a consensus around its plans for education reforms
recently;
(b) if so, the details thereof including the agenda for this meeting;
(c) the major points discussed in the meeting;
(d) the reaction of the State Education Ministers in this regard; and
(e) the final decision taken by the Government, if any, in the matter?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT (Dr. D. PURANDESWARI)
(a) to (e) : Yes, Sir. A conference of the State Education Ministers was
held on 22nd February, 2012 at New Delhi to discuss various issues relating
to Department of Higher Education and Department of School Education & Literacy.
The Conference was attended by 23 Ministers of Education representing State
Governments and Union Territories. The Agenda for the meeting included inter-alia
Introduction of a common eligibility examination for higher education in science
and engineering, Vocational Education, Community Colleges in XII Plan, Curricular
renewal for Elementary Education of equitable quality, and Grievances Redressal
Under RTE Act.
After detailed deliberations, the proposal for a common national examination with
effect from 2013 with weightage to State Board results, normalized on the basis
of percentiles formula, was endorsed “in principle†by States. The States of
Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and West Bengal sought more
time to study the proposal in detail. The States may decide on adopting the
same pattern for admission to State-level engineering institutions with
appropriate weightages as States may think fit.
While welcoming the development of National Vocational Education Qualification
Framework (NVEQF), the State Education Ministers felt that NVEQF will be an
important landmark in improving the skills and employability of the youth of
this country. The report of State Education Ministers headed by the Hon’ble
Education Minister of Bihar on NVEQF was unanimously accepted. After deliberations,
NVEQF and the concept of community colleges was unanimously endorsed by States.
The need to have a dialogue at the State level with School Boards, Boards of
Technical Education and universities to provide a seamless pathway for
vocational students was stressed.
Issues relating to quality of elementary education were also discussed.
While many States have developed state vision of quality and also initiated
some curricular reform, but a lot of age-inappropriate material continues
to form part of the textbooks and teaching learning material used in
classrooms. States were requested to initiate steps to formulate age
-appropriate curricula and syllabi in keeping with the principles of
section 29 of the RTE Act and NCF-2005. States were also requested to
institute CCE from the child’s perspective to show progress that the
child has made with respect to his or her performance. State Governments
were also requested to put in place the Grievance Redressal and appellate
mechanism taking into account the guidelines prescribed under the RTE Act.