Kapil Sibal is the most vocal and visible face of UPA-II in media today. This advocate-turned-education-reformer wishes to undo all the decades old wrongs in India’s education. If Kapil Sibal is to be believed, none will have any grievance about the education system in India. And no one can doubt India becoming the Knowledge Superpower.

The Parliament has already passed The Right to Education Bill empowering children through mandatory education till class VIII. It brings 8.1 million schoolchildren of the total 193 million children in 6-14 age group in the ambit of quality school education. It also promises to improve quality of education in government schools.

As the first step to detraumatization of the students, CBSE will abolish its Class X examinations from 2010-11 and will introduce the grading system from 2009-10 (current academic year). The reform will reduce unhealthy competition and stress among students. The system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCS) will challenge the age-old practice of prevalent rote learning and inculcate creativity among the students.

Sibal will fix the ills in higher education too. A collegium comprising experts and eminent academics will start selecting the vice chancellors with no interference from the government side within the next one year. The government through a bill will set up the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) providing the collegium. NCHER will be an overarching agency in higher education that will start working before the beginning of the 2010-11 academic year, and will have the best of both the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission. NCHER will regulate different streams such as technical education, medical education, architecture, general education, research and scholarships. The commission would be an autonomous body like the Election Commission of India

A Central Madrassa Board will also ensure that only non-theological education would be overseen by it and the rest will be from the mainstream education system.

The government plans to accredit all higher education professional institutes within a timeframe with a provision for heavy penalty up to Rs 50 lakh for defaulters. A new law will soon allow the entry of Foreign Education Providers, and another will have provisions against educational malpractices through educational tribunals to settle disputes between different stakeholders.
Sibal’s ministry is also working on removing a legal barrier to attract reputed teachers of Indian origin and Indian citizens working in world-class institutions abroad. Unfortunately, Sibal has not been able to satisfy the teachers at IITs and IIMs.

Sibal advocates for a common, uniform science and mathematics curriculum in schools and with doing away with the multiplicity of school boards in the country. I strongly support this, while some pleads for closer scrutiny, as ‘our founding fathers, in their wisdom, had placed education on the concurrent list, therefore giving the states the autonomy to decide on their education system.’ Sibal must work on this issue to have consensus. I am sure that Prof cum Pleader Sibal can explain and argue it out to sell it to the satisfaction of all. It will remove a lot of mess including corruption too that is there with multiplicity of boards, some say 40 plus in the country.