Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani has been asked to make public a report containing suggestions for the new national education policy, which was put together by a five-member panel. Former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian reportedly wrote a three-page letter to Irani, informing her that he will make the report public unless she does, The Indian Express reported.
Subramanian had headed the five-member committee that was given the responsibility of collating feedback collected by the HRD Ministry through grassroots and national-level consultations and making recommendations to draft the country's new education policy.
Officials said the ministry is studying the report and will prepare a draft education policy, which will be put in the public domain for feedback. However, Subramanian has urged Irani to make the panel’s report public, saying that the document pertained to public interest and was not a “top secret”. He further said that Irani and ministry officials he had met with earlier implied that the suggestions will be uploaded on the government’s official website for feedback, which has not been done so far.
The 200-page report contains nearly 90 suggestions, including a compulsory quality audit of all higher education institutes every three years, allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in India in collaboration with Indian institutes, and bringing back detention of students beyond Class V, among other recommendations.
The last education policy was made in 1986. Others in the panel were former chief secretaries of Delhi and Gujarat, Shailaja Chandra and Sudhir Mankad, and former National Council of Educational Research and Training chief JS Rajput. It is not known when Subramanian plans to go public with the content of the report, which was submitted on May 27.
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