Education sector may face tug of war

NEW DELHI: Tuesday’s meeting of the full Planning Commission to consider the future course of the education sector is likely to witness a clash between HRD Arjun Singh and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The full Planning Commission which meets to discuss the education sector is likely to become a tug of war for its control. The meeting, which was earlier scheduled for the the first week of August, had to be postponed because of differences of opinion between the Commission and the ministry. The basic points of divergence seem not to have been addressed in the interim period.

Objections are likely to be raised by the HRD ministry on the Commission’s plans to “evolve an appropiate policy framework for facilitating greater inflow of private investments in education including removal of entry barriers, simplified procedures for affiliations, etc.”

the Planning Commission has in its agenda note for the meeting suggested that there “should be sufficient flexibility for Centre-State and private sector participation under various PPP models.”

What is sure to raise the heckels of the ministry of human resource development, is the fact that the Planning Commission hasn’t taken its objections to the the proposal into consideration. An earlier version of note for the full Commission meeting had suggested that “an appropriate policy framework for facilitating private investments in education including removal of entry barriers, simplified procedures for affiliations, etc.”

Planning Commission’s suggestion to create an investment climate that would attract private investment in the sector will not find favour with the HRD ministry.

In keeping with the stand taken by the ministry in the course of the preparation of the XIth plan approach paper, it can expected that the HRD minister would oppose the suggestion on the grounds that an policy framework to attract private investment would provide new impetus to commercialising education and worse still go against the National Education Policy, multiple judgements of the Supreme Court, and even the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), which promises to provide full equality of opportunity to all in areas such as education.