Dubai: "Please rid me of this awful load, preparing for the class 10 board
"My thirsty mind craves to create, and not have exams decide my fate."
It was as much an emotive poet and a feisty politician in Kapil Sibal that penned these lines soon after he scrapped the Grade 10 board exams in the CBSE system, last year.
Pumped with an equal doze of passion and political will, the Indian Union Minister for Human Resources Development (HRD) is committed to shake up the education system with sweeping reforms. The one-time supreme court lawyer says he is confident that changes will be accepted albeit slowly.
In an exclusive interview with Gulf News during his recent visit to the UAE, Sibal tells why educational reforms are crucial to India.
Gulf News: After scrapping the board exams in Grade 10, you have plans to have a National Commission for Higher Education Research (NCHER), introduce semester system in universities, bring madrasas into mainstream education and a host of new reforms. But is the path to reform slowing down due to political hurdles?
Kapil Sibal: Not at all! In fact, the right to education was passed with unanimity in parliament. All political parties supported it. So there was no political hurdle there. As far as the 10th board is concerned, I could only do it in the CBSE system in a federal structure. I cannot force this on state boards. There was absolute unanimity in my proposal for doing a core curriculum for all schools in India in the science stream that was passed unanimously by COBSE, [Council for Boards of Secondary Education].
You are supportive of foreign direct investment (FDI) into education, which is again opposed by the left. How would you cross that hurdle?
The left has an ideology — their ideology is opposition. You cannot expect anything more than that. But I am sure we will reach out and try and persuade them to. They opposed when we signed for accession to the WTO saying that we will become slaves to the West. That did not happen. They are opposing FDI; they are opposing foreign universities or foreign education providers coming into India and of course what ever their fears are, it is unrealistic. And when the act is passed, they will see how beneficial it is for the community as such.
Isn't quality definitely an issue for our education system, especially considering the fact that learning outcomes have not been that great?
That is what we are looking at now. We have introduced accreditations. Every institution of higher education will have to be accredited, which means benchmarking quality. No institution that does not get an accreditation can actually continue to function. We are bringing about a law in education malpractices, which is also introduced in parliament to make sure that people are not duped by institutions as they have been in the past.
So those regulatory measures are in place and the outcomes will be reflected in the market because those institutions that do not perform will not get admissions of students. So naturally they will have to be put on notice by the market itself and that is what will deliver.
You are pushing for Indian universities to set up branches abroad. Are you worried about the quality of education we sell abroad?
As far as we are concerned, the Indian institutions that have set up branches abroad are institutions of repute. But wherever there is a quality issue, there must be an accreditation system in place.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has completed one year in office. Are you happy about the achievements of the HRD ministry?
It is not appropriate for me to talk about myself. But yes, we had an agenda we set up for the first time. I think that we have, in a sense, delivered on what we have promised. It is work in progress. It is a long way to go. And changes in the education sector don't happen overnight. But what we are trying it do is to lay the foundations of a new structure which first into a competitive global world and prepare our young children for that competition.
You have earned the reputation of a minister who delivers. At the same time, there are criticisms that come your way that you take decisions unilaterally. How do you respond to that?
That is not true. In fact, the first time in a long, long time after 20-25 years that when the state committee meeting took place after I took over, all the resolutions were passed unanimously and all the state ministers were there. To say that I take these decisions unilaterally is perhaps criticism that is launched by one or two states whose ideology is distinctly different from that of the rest of the country.
Where will the money come from to implement the Right to education act that ensures free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 years? Your ministry estimates it will cost more than Rs170,000 crores (Rs1.7 trillion).
As far as we are concerned, the prime minister is committed that finance will not come in the way. But I think what will come in the way is political will at the level of the state governments.
There are some state governments who are saying that we will not be able to implement this unless there is a hundred per cent support from the centre. Now that is unfortunate. Education is a subject in the concurrent list and the primary responsibility for educating children is with the states.
I do not think there should be any politics in it. Union government and state governments should get together and make sure this is implemented.
You have always maintained that what is crucial to India is to expand its colleges and schools — to reduce the gap between demand and supply. You are targeting 35,000 colleges and 700 more universities by 2020. What are the efforts towards that direction?
It is not my effort. This is on the demand side. If you increase your gross enrolment ratio from 12.4 to 30 per cent, which we tend to do by 2020, the demand will increase exponentially. And so that demand cannot be supplied by governments. It has to be supplied by various stake-holders in society and substantially by the private sector. But as you know, when there is a demand, there shall be a supply.
And those supplies will be there. What we will do is to regulate the supplies and ensure quality supplies. The education institutes that set up should be quality institutions. So we will regulate the market but we will not put restrictions on the market in a nature that such investments don't take place.
From legal profession to politics, are you enjoying the role of a politician?
Absolutely! I am committed and passionate about whatever I do. That is how I approach education.
Profile: Lawyer turned politician
Kapil Sibal, 62, is the Union Minister for Human Resources Development (HRD) in the United Progressive Alliance government. He has also held the portfolio as Minister of Science and Technology under the prime ministership of Manmohan Singh.
A leading supreme court lawyer before he plunged into politics, Sibal chose the legal profession over Indian Civil Service after clearing the Indian Administrative Service in 1973.
After graduating from the Harvard School of Law, he had served as the Additional Solicitor General of India in 1989.
He became a member of Rajya Sabha in 1998, and in 2004 he was elected to the Lok Sabha. He has two sons — Amit and Akhil. Both are practising lawyers in India.
Does the education system in India prepare its people well for life later on? What changes to the system would make it more effective?
