More than numbers

Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s proposals have begun a debate and there is a looming conflict between grand conceptions and frustrating details. Especially,the proposal for a single national board at the Class 12 level is very likely to run into rough weather. It needs the tightrope walk of discussion and coordination between the Centre and the states. While states like Maharashtra and Gujarat have welcomed it,voices of protest have already emerged from Left-ruled West Bengal and Kerala that smell a conspiracy to “over-centralise and privatise” education,and to upset the federal structure.

Whether or not we are about to witness a fresh Unitary vs Federalist line-up,it must be admitted that a single national board,with a uniform system of evaluation,would conveniently ease the national mobility of students currently under state boards and end the annual fiasco over admissions and the relative assessment of scores under various boards,with varied marking practices. It would,by extension,make national talent assessment easier and more accurate. On the other hand,Sibal’s ministry would have to be careful about the issue of diversity — a single national board cannot afford to be seen as trampling on regional culture and history through uniform and centrally-determined syllabi. To circumvent this problem,the proposed board could offer states latitude over humanities and liberal arts syllabi,whereby regional literature and history can be adequately accommodated. (Mathematics and the other sciences can be assumed to be more or less universal,and therefore not standing in the way of homogeneity.)

The primary note of caution for Sibal is to not rush in,least of all with the single board. The proposals must be thought through and analysed in perspective,and dissociated from the breathlessness of a 100-day rhetoric. While education needs a largescale overhaul,leaping from inactivity or useless activity (as under Sibal’s predecessor) to hyper-activity will not help. One only needs to imagine the problem-ridden CBSE turning into the proposed national board to understand the dangers involved. Still,caution is not scepticism,and Sibal should embark on revolutionising education,and do so by broadening the national debate.