Eyes on new chief: Union human resource development ministry starts hunt for CBSE head

NEW DELHI: The Union human resource development ministry has begun its hunt for the next head of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the country’s largest school education board.

HRD minister Smriti Irani recently constituted a five-member search committee for this purpose. Interestingly, Professor Jawaharlal Kaul, vice chancellor of Vikram University in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, is on the search panel. Kaul had been manhandled and his office vandalized by members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal when he appealed for donations to help flood victims in Kashmir. Both the VHP and Bajrang Dal are affiliated to the Sangh Parivar, as is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Nisar Ahmad Ganai, former head of the Jammu and Kashmir school education board, Union Grants Commission chairman Ved Prakash and HRD joint secretary Satbir Bedi are other members of the search panel. “Both Kaul and Ganai have good academic credentials. In fact, Ganai got the education system in J&K back on track during the insurgency period,” said an HRD official, who did not wish to be identified.

Irani was not available to comment on Kaul’s selection for the search panel. The post of the CBSE chairman is currently occupied by Vineet Joshi. His term, which expires this month, could be extended by a few months until the government finds a successor, sources said. Joshi’s term under the new Modi government has been controversial. The weeklong celebration of Sanksrit in CBSE schools was criticized heavily by political leaders of the southern states.

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi resisting the “imposition” of the Sanskrit Week in schools in her state.

Appointments to the posts of chairman at CBSE and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) are being watched closely by the academic world as the government is rumoured to be under a lot of pressure from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to ‘Indianise’ the education curriculum.