What a mess!

The reversion to the old system comes about three weeks prior to the new academic session. According to the earlier plan for adoption of the uni-track curricula, 19 text books had to be published, but now with the switch-back to the multi-track system books on as many as 26 subjects will have to be printed. There is hardly any lead time for that. As a result, eighty-five lakh secondary school-level students are thrown in varying degrees of uncertainty in getting their text books in time for the new session. Almost certainly around 10 lakh Class-IX students will suffer for lack of text books which are to be published in keeping with the old syllabus now that the costly preparations made for books suited for uni-track instructions are going waste. Another financial and book distribution scandal is perhaps in the making.

It is a classic example of a debacle in decision-making based on short-sighted and imprudent display of administrative prowess in a matter which was purely educational demanding a consultative process participated by experts, academics, school authorities, teaching community and the civil society at large. Matters such as these would have been brought to parliament for debate and deliberation in any other country for associating people with the decision-making touching the academic lives of millions. Sadly, while this was not done here, the very least that the government could have done was to hold sustained national debates involving all stakeholders so as to arrive at a collective decision on the rationale for change, the contents of it, the modus operandi and the timetable for it. The issue being a wholly apolitical one, there should not have been any mental block in involving all stakeholders with the decision-making process. Equally importantly, there was the stupendous need for massive preparations to make the paradigm shift in terms of curricula.

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All that we look forward to now is a vigorous government effort for publication of quality text books and their distribution to all students latest by mid-January 2006.