Pros, cons of RUSA under review

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 7

The BJP’s poll promise to roll back Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) has become a thorn in the flesh for the new BJP government as after initial consultation, the state government is realising that roll back of RUSA is not feasible.

Since RUSA was an integral part of education policy of the Union government to bring about qualitative improvement in education and huge chunk of funds are rooted through RUSA, any move to scrap it would be detrimental to the interest of the state.

Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj is not keen to take any decision in haste and is studying the pros and cons of RUSA. He has sought suggestions from academicians and experts.

“No decision has been taken on RUSA and also on scrapping the semester system so far and the shortcomings and bottlenecks in implementation of RUSA are being identified”, said Suresh Bhardwaj, adding that the basic problem is with the inadequate infrastructure, shortage of teaching staff and weakness in choice-based credit system (CBCS).

“We are committed to resolving the grievances of teachers and students as promised and both shortcomings of RUSA system which was implemented in haste and the BJP’s vision document are being studied,” he said, adding that a detailed presentation of RUSA would be made before the Cabinet to widen the scope of deliberations.

Adequate staff and other facilities were not provided in advance for smooth implementation of RUSA while semester system has reduced the teaching days and details would have to be worked out to increase the teaching days, he said adding that there was also a need to review the colleges opened by the government and weaknesses of the CBCS.

The semester system under RUSA has increased the workload as examinations are held twice a year and in the absence of supporting staff, the declaration of results were delayed inordinately, causing unrest.

The students as well as teaching staff were up in arms against RUSA and the university remained on boil for nearly two years but the government took a tough stand and RUSA was not rolled back. The students’ organisations, including ABVP and the SFI, vehemently opposed RUSA while teacher unions vociferously pleaded for recruitment of additions staff as required under the CBCS.

The additional staff is required not only in the university but also in colleges under CBCS as teachers are overworked while failure to streamline the examination system and delay in declaration of results cost dear to the students, aspiring for admissions in other universities and institutions for perusing higher education.