Where is the Intellectual in Mr. Kapil Sibal ?

We all have seen extensive media reports on his “New agenda for first 100 days” or “How fresh air is blowing in the corridors of HRD ministry” etc. His five point agenda is actually a one point agenda that of furthering his image as an intellectual in the eyes of a willing media, that is desperately looking for one in present day politics. All of his five attempts if you look at things with detail, you will find them a very shallow rehashing attempt of things from our own past and tried and failed ideas from the west as well. Let us look at his agenda in detail.

1. Promoting Hindi: This is old wine in a new bottle, in a misguided attempt to force a national language the central government has been doing it all these years. Though we don’t have a national language, we all were being lied to in our civics lessons that somehow Hindi is this “national language”. Thankfully this has stopped with NCERT textbooks calling out that we don’t have one, recently. Obviously, Mr. Sibal is unaware of this. Mr. Sibal should focus on Hindi education in the Hindi belt and similarly in other relevant languages appropriate for the regions. E.g. telugu for AP etc.

2. Board exam optional & Grades for marks: This is where Mr. Sibal accomplished the biggest con job of his career so far. Grades are based on the fundamental premise that there is no need for microscopic distinction between students. This is often practical and implemented in societies where in there is significant capacity in the system for higher education. E.g. in developed societies the higher education capacity (i.e. available seats in college is in excess of 70%) so there pressure to be in a rat race is not there and people can take things easy in life. In India where the higher education capacity is a pathetic and abysmal 12%, that too with several social obligations etc. like reservation, which suck merit pool out of the system the real capacity for merit is only between 5-6%. Now what would be a logical solution to this ? Increasing this higher education capacity so that the pressure to do well is reduced, or a cosmetic measure like “No Exam for Xth – Only Grades for marks, which will reduce pressure ?”. You guessed it, our man went for the latter which will make him appear an intellectual.

3. Capacity for Quota: Sibal is somewhat sober on the issue of quotas, his articulated concern for dilution of higher education and research is worth mentioning and appreciating. His ministry has failed totally when it comes to a well thought out plan for increasing capacity. Due to several social and political obligations reservations are here to stay for some time. He should singularly focus on building more IITs and letting those who can afford to pay, to join foreign universities even if the campuses are established on Indian soil. Somehow, due to lack of political will this is not being done by him in earnest.

4. Raising the bar – also known as higher cut off for IITs: This was a very cheap gimmick and publicity stunt by Sibal. On the one hand he expresses concern that we are focusing too much on marks and proposes grades and dilution of emphasis on them. On the other hand, he advocates a much higher cut off for IITs !! Enough said on this hypocrisy.

5. Reworking the syllabus – common curriculum across boards… Again none of this is new. Most boards follow the syllabus prescribed by the NCERT by and large and we already have an All India entrance exam in Engineering and Medicine. Somehow, renaming these and a very sophisticated English accent with which Mr. Sibal communicates has made him a darling of the media and a willing media gives him credit for the intelligent proposal as well here ! Already the central exams are resented by the southern states as they are only in Hindi and English. Can anyone explain why entrance exams for IITs have to be conducted in Hindi ? Or for that matter any entrance exam. The higher education in India is largely in English and the near totality of that medium in Engineering, medicine etc. should have made this obvious to our intellectual minister. Somehow, we do not hear proposals on conducting these exams in Marathi, Odissi, Tamil, Telugu etc. so that all Indians have an equal shot at success. Now, how can we expect the state boards which have guarded the state students against central hegemony to accede to this. Already State board chiefs from Kerala and AP have expressed their concerns with AP declaring that they will not be part of this common evaluation system !!Yet our media gives him credit for having accomplished this, already !!! Though he is obsessed with browbeating the state boards, somehow I am not seeing any action on the part of the minister to stop the proliferation of schools in IB (international baccalaureate) or IGCSE (the colonial british system). They are mushrooming all over the nation and in addition to being divergent with Indian boards, even in calendar and timetable they are out of alignment.

Sincerely speaking, our education minister needs to educate himself first on the diverse nature of the knowledge systems that exist in India. His principle of diversity stops with just recognizing the “unique nature of madrasas” and stopping at that. There is an old axiom “Before you attempt to educate others, educate yourself well at first” I can’t think of a better example than Mr. Sibal for this….