HRD is commonly known as the human resource development ministry, the main work of the HRD ministry is to Formulate the National Policy on Education and to ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit. The planned development, including expanding access and improving quality of the educational institutions throughout the country, including in the regions where people do not have easy access to education. The very decision changing the HRD ministry into Education ministry is certainly a good thought since the main mantra of the ministry is to look into the development and educational matters. What will be the implication of this action? Is the authority in favour of this change? is the education and HRD minister the same?
The Minister of Human Resource Development (or simply, the HRD Minister), formerly known as the Minister of Education until 25 September 1985, is the head of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the new National Education Policy (NEP) and renamed the HRD ministry as Education Ministry. The draft was then put in the public domain to seek feedback from various stakeholders. The HRD Ministry received over 2 lakh suggestions about the same. In order to grant competitive funding for outstanding research proposals across all disciplines, a National Research Foundation might get established. A committee led by Chairman Dr K Kasturirangan formed the Draft National Education Policy 2019 on the foundational pillars of ‘Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability.’ Under the new education policy, children will be taught three languages at the early stage, i.e, between 3 and 8 years. The new education policy has proposed a new curricular and pedagogical structure, with 5+3+3+4 design covering children between 3 and 18 years. Under this (a) Five years of the foundational stage including three years of pre-primary school, followed by Grades 1 and 2 (b) Three years of the preparatory (or latter primary) stage from Grade 3 to 5; (c) Three years of the middle (or upper primary) stage from Grade 6 to 8 (d) Four years of the high (or secondary) stage from Grade 9 to 12.
According to a report by Republic world, Earlier when the Draft NEP was released, the Opposition in the southern states targeted the Centre alleging that the central government is commanding the Hindi language on the states. Soon after, the new order was developed with no notice of Hindi as an obligatory language in the three-language formula and stating that ‘students free to choose any language they want’.The idea behind changing the name is to give a clearer definition of the ministry’s work. An official announcement on this will be made later Wednesday. The new NEP will replace the existing policy which was first formulated in 1986 and last modified in 1992. The new policy is based on a draft prepared by a committee led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K. Kasturirangan. Consultations were held with stakeholders at all levels, including states and districts, and sources in the HRD ministry confirmed to ThePrint that additions are being made to help the education policy become more “technology-oriented” as it is the need of the hour.
The HRD ministry name was adopted in 1985, during the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, as it was changed from the ministry of education. Sources said the change in the name of the ministry has been proposed in order to focus on education and learning. Since the very motto of the HRD ministry is to look into the matters of education and all related interests, the union cabinet couldn’t wait to change the name as Education ministry. “NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3 pc (2018) to 50 pc by 2035. At least 3.5 crore new seats will be added to higher education institutions,” HRD Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare said at a press briefing. As per the new policy, the system of affiliation will be phased out over 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism for granting graded autonomy to colleges, through a transparent system of graded accreditation, will be established. Among the key reforms in the policy are common entrance exam for admissions to universities and colleges to be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), discontinuation of MPhil programmes, common norms to be in place for private and public higher education institutions and fee fixation under a broad regulatory framework.
Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Wednesday said that a major announcement will be made this evening regarding the students who are currently not in the same district as their board examination centre. The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education. Internationalisation of education will be facilitated through both institutional collaborations, and student and faculty mobility and allowing entry of top world-ranked Universities to open campuses in our country. The word ‘human resources’ reeks of mechanisation and commercialisation whereas education ministry depicts what the ministry should focus on, making education accessible and universal, not just creating Industry-ready graduates. The name change is only for the people to understand the real motive of the HRD misitry. To ensure continuation of learning, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) is offering its digital platforms to education institutions and their students following the close down of colleges and postponement of their examinations across the country due to covid-19.
COVID 19 the pandemic has made us all realize that education can not be replaced and digital india has been well developing from the past few months. not only this the new educational material in various formats like audio, video, e-book, flip book and now even in augmented reality format. NROER (National Repository of Open Educational Resources), the ICT for school education, provides access to a large number of educational resources from primary to tertiary level in multiple languages. It has a total of 14,527 files, including 401 collections, 2,779 documents, 1,345 interactive, 1,664 audios, 2,586 images and 6,153 videos on different topics in different languages. According to a key recommendation in the draft New Education Policy, in order to bring the focus back on education and learning, the Ministry of Human Resource Development should be redesignated as the Ministry of Education (MoE).
