Eminent scientist, former Chief of ISRO and Padma Vibhushan Dr. K. Kasturirangan has been appointed Chairman of the committee tasked with preparing the final draft of the National Education Policy.
The committee has eight members, apart from the chairperson. The members of the panel are Vice-Chancellor of SNDP University, Mumbai, and educationist Vasudha Kamat; retired bureaucrat K.J. Alphonse; Princeton University Mathematics Professor Manjul Bhargava; Vice-Chancellor of Baba Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhau, Ram Shankar Kureel, who has written on inclusion of the marginal in mainstream education; Vice-Chancellor of Tribal University, Amarkantak, T.V. Kattamani; K.M. Tripathy from Uttar Pradesh; Professor of Persian, Guwahati University, Mahzar Asif and CABE member M.K. Shridhar.
Dr. Bhargava was awarded the Field medal in mathematics for his contribution to Gauss number theory. Mr. Alphonse, a former Kerala cadre IAS officer, who joined the BJP in 2011.
Wide consultations
“The Council will start its work from immediate effect. In an exhaustive democratic exercise carried out for the last 30 months, the HRD Ministry has received thousands of suggestions from educationists, teachers, experts, students and other stakeholders from across the country,” an HRD Ministry release said.
Online feedback
“Consultations were held at tehsil, district and State level. Regional conferences were organised where State governments have given their detailed opinion. Rajya Sabha debated the issues and a special education dialogue was organised in which 48 MPs from all parties participated. Many MPs have given their views in writing. On MyGov platform 26,000 people gave their views online,” the release said.
It added that all these inputs, along with suggestions of the T.S.R. Subramaniam committee, will be considered by the committee.
