New Delhi: A committee appointed by the government to formulate a new education policy has suggested that number of years a student can spend on campus should be limited and has also suggested that students should be stopped from overstaying at university hostels after completion of their course.
The TSR Subramanian committee’s recommendation comes after months of protests at top universities such as the Hyderabad Central University, Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India.
The committee headed by former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian also recommended that politics on campus should be curbed.
In its report to the HRD ministry, the committee also warned against letting campuses turn into “political arenas to settle national rivalries”.
Here are some other recommendations of TSR Subramanian committee:
1- The committee has recommended that there should be minimum eligibility condition with 50% marks at graduate level for taking admission in B.Ed courses.
2- The committee has suggested that Teacher Entrance Tests (TET) should be made compulsory for recruitment of all teachers and the Centre and states should jointly decide norms and standards for TET.
3- Recommendations by TSR Subramanian committee include a uniform national test for admission to undergraduate courses and nearly doubling the government expenditure in the education sector. Committee recommends that outlay on education should be raised to at least 6% of GDP.
4- Class X examinations in Mathematics and Science should be in two levels – Part B at a basic level and Part A at an advanced level.
5- No-detention policy after Class 5 should be discontinued.
6- An Indian Education Service (IES) should be established as an all India service with officers being on permanent settlement to the state governments but with the cadre controlling authority vesting with the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry.
7- Pre-school education for children in the age group of 4 to 5 years should be declared as a right and a programme for it implemented immediately.
8- On-demand board exams should be introduced to offer flexibility and reduce year end stress of students and parents.
9- The mid-day meal program should now be extended to cover students of secondary schools.
10- Top 200 foreign universities should be allowed to open campuses in India
TSR Subramanian committee, entrusted with preparing a new education policy for India, was set up on October 31 last year and submitted a 230-page report to the Ministry of HRD on April 30. With TSR Subramanian as its Chairman, committee had former NCERT director JS Rajput and retired bureaucrats Shailaja Chandra, Seva Ram Sharma and Sudhir Mankad as its members.
