Education Dept gives panel just 15 days to frame policy

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20

In a mockery of an exercise, the Education Department has given just about 15 days to a panel of experts to frame the state’s education policy in view of poor performance of government schools. The first meeting of the panel was held on Monday (July 16). It has been told to file report by July 31.

Panel chairman Prof BS Ghumman, Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, said: “We have decided to write to the CM to seek time to work on crucial aspects of compiling the report.”

He said: “We have drawn up a schedule for organising seminars by involving parents, teachers, heads and administrators. We will also organise intellectual sessions between planners, administrators, teachers and school heads.”

Meanwhile, it has come to the fore that findings of a panel under former Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr SP Singh, submitted about a decade ago, were never implemented.

Dr SP Singh has now communicated to the CM that “no policy could be framed within 15 days”.

He said: “Our team had done extensive research work on the falling standards of school education for six months. We had contacted at least 10,000 stakeholders. Our report was not implemented because of poor political and administrative acumen.”

Krishan Kumar, Secretary, School Education, said: “Giving more time to the panel is a minor issue. Let the work commence. The committee can take its time. We only want that the exercise should take long.”

The panel members of the new committee include Manohar Kant Kalohia, Chairman, PSEB; Prashant Goyal, Director General School Education; Dr Marmar Mukhopadhyay, National University of Educational Planning and Administration; Dr Kuldeep Puri, Panjab University; Ashish Dhawan, chairman, Central Square Foundation; Dr Rukmani Banerjee, director, Pratham; and Diptasri Basu, Centre for Civil Society.