(a) whether the Government had set up a nine members committee to formulate a New Education
Policy;
(b) if so, whether the committee has submitted its report to the Government recently;
(c) if so, the details thereof and the main recommendations made by the committee therein; and
(d) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to improve the overall quality of the
education sector in the country?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(Dr. SATYA PAL SINGH)
(a): Yes Madam. The Government is in the process of formulating a New Education Policy
(NEP) and a Committee to Draft National Education Policy has been constituted on 24th June
2017 under the Chairmanship of eminent scientist Padma Vibhushan Dr. K Kasturirangan.
(b): The report of the Committee is awaited.
(c): Does not arise.
(d): Improving the quality of education across all levels from primary to university level is a
continuous and ongoing process. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment, 1976 brought about a
fundamental change by transferring education from the State List to the Concurrent List giving
equal responsibility to both the Central and State Governments to promote education.
Recognizing the centrality of states both in policy formulation and effective implementation of
education reforms, the Ministry of HRD has been regularly convening meetings of the Central
Advisory Board on Education (CABE), which is a composite body and is also the highest
advisory body on education.
Several initiatives are currently being undertaken in this direction, such as in elementary
education, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme aims for improvements in school infrastructure, curricular
and assessment reforms, identification of learning indicators, improved teaching and learning
resulting in better learning outcomes. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha (RSMA), ICT in Schools,
Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education (CSSTE), Shaala Siddhi, Rashtriya Avishkar
Abhiyan are being implemented to improve the quality of secondary education. Recently, the
Department of School Education and Literacy has formulated the Samagra Shiksha – an Integral
Scheme for School Education as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and it is being implemented
throughout the country with effect from the year 2018-19. This programme subsumes the three
erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik
Shiksha (RSMA) and Teacher Education (TE). It is an overarching programme for the school
education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and
equitable quality education at all levels of school education. It envisages the ‘school’ as a
continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to senior secondary levels.
In higher education also, various schemes, namely, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan
(RUSA), Scheme for promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), Global
Initiative for Academics Network (GIAN), Impacting Research, Innovation & Technology
(IMPRINT), Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT), Study Webs of
Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), National Digital Library, campus
connect programme, Uchhatar Avishkar Abhiyan, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Impactful Research in
Social Sciences (IMPRESS), Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA)
are being implemented to improve the quality of higher education. A number of initiatives are
also undertaken by UGC and AICTE for quality improvement in higher and technical education.
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