1st June 2019

DRAFT NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 

Committee led by Dr K. Kasturirangan presented New Draft of National Education Policy.

• The Draft Policy is built on foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability & Accountability.

Key Recommendations

• Sanskrit at all levels of education: Sanskrit should be taught at all levels of school and higher education as one of the optional languages on par with all Schedule 8 languages. 
  • Sanskrit textbooks at the Foundational and Middle school level may be rewritten in Simple Standard Sanskrit (SSS) in order to teach Sanskrit through Sanskrit (STS).
• Extension of the Right To Education (RTE) Act: RTE, which currently applies to classes I to VIII, will now be applicable to the entire school system from pre-school to class XII.
  • It will cover children of ages 3 to 18 (preschool to senior secondary level).
• Restructuring of school curriculum and 5+3+3+4 design: Under the proposed 5+3+3+4 design
  • The first five years of schooling of children in the age group of 3 to 8 years would be marked as Foundational Stage (it includes three years of pre-primary plus grade 1 and grade 2).
  • The next three years of schooling, to be marked as a Preparatory Stage for the children in the age group of 8 to 11 years (will include grades 3 to 5).
  • Middle Stage (grades 6 to 8) for the students in the age group of 11-14 years.
  • Secondary Stage (Grades 9-12) for students in the age group of 14-18 years.
• Schools will be re-organized into school complexes.
• System for flexible and multiple board examinations: Introduction of a semester system in school education for students of classes 10 to 12, with provisions for holding "flexible and modular board examinations".
  • Students will be able to take a board examination in a given subject in whichever semester they take the corresponding class in school,whenever they feel most ready.
  • They should be able to take any such subject board examination again if they feel they can study and do better.
• Restructuring of the higher education institutions: by placing them under three categories:
  • The first primarily being focussed on research.
  • Second providing high-quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to research.
  • Third providing quality teaching focussed on undergraduate education.
  • It also suggests the introduction of four-year undergraduate programmes in higher education institutions and restructuring of the current 3-year BA, Bsc, B Com and B Voc programmes with provisions to provide students with "multiple exit and entry options".
• Establishment of a Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (National Education Commission): as a constitutional body through an Act of Parliament, with the Prime Minister being its Chairperson. 
  • Rajya Shiksha Ayog/State Education Commissions may be constituted in each state.
• Establishment of one higher education regulator—National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA)— that will subsume all other bodies like UGC, AICTE and others into it.
• A national programme for the professional development of faculty members of the higher education institutions.

 PM KISAN PENSION YOJANA 

Why in news? 

Cabinet approved the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Pension Yojana under which small and marginal farmers will get a minimum fixed pension of Rs 3,000 per month on attaining the age of 60 years. 

About the news 

• In the initial phase, the Government will cover minimum 5 crore small and marginal farmers in the first three years. 
•  It would cost Rs 10,774.5 crore per annum to the exchequer.  

About PM KISAN PENSION YOJANA 

• This scheme is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for a small and marginal farmers across the country, with the entry age of 18-40 years. 
• The Central Government will match the contribution made by the eligible farmer in the pension fund. After the subscriber's death, while receiving pension, the spouse of the beneficiary will be entitled to receive 50 percent of the pension amount, provided he/she is not already a beneficiary of the scheme. 
• Farmers can use benefits under PM- KISAN scheme for the making contribution under the pension scheme. 
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• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi
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 Context: To provide an assured income support to the small and marginal farmers, the Government has unveiled the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN).

 About Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi:

1. Under this programme, vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto 2 hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year.
2. This income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal installments of Rs. 2,000 each.
3. The complete expenditure of Rs 75000 crore for the scheme will borne by the Union Government in 2019-20.

Significance:

Around 12 crore small and marginal farmer families are expected to benefit from this. It would not only provide assured supplemental income to the most vulnerable farmer families, but would also meet their emergent needs especially before the harvest season. It would pave the way for the farmers to earn and live a respectable living.

Similar programmes by states:

Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana in Madhya Pradesh was sought to provide relief to farmers by providing the differential between MSPs and market prices.

The Rythu Bandhu scheme of the Telangana government provides ₹4,000 per acre for every season to all the farmers of the state. Similar initiatives have also be framed in Jharkhand and Odisha.

In December 2018, Odisha launched the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income augmentation (KALIA). KALIA is more complicated in design and implementation. It commits to give Rs 5,000 per SMF, twice a year, that is Rs 10,000 a year.

Benefits of direct cash transfers:

• It has immediate impact on reducing hunger and rural poverty.
• They can help households to overcome credit constraints and manage risk. This can increase productive investment, increase access to markets and stimulate local economies.
• Income support can be used to make a repayment or at least activate a bank account which can then receive a loan.
• It can increase investment in agricultural inputs, including farm implements and livestock.
• It can serve as an important complement to a broader rural development agenda, including a pro-poor growth strategy focusing on agriculture.

Challenges with cash transfers- criticisms:

• Landless labourers are not being covered under PM-KISAN.
• Cash transfers are not greatly superior in terms of leakages compared to other schemes of in-kind transfer such as the public distribution system (PDS).
• A targeted cash transfer scheme envisions the role of the state to only providing cash income to the poor. This kind of approach seeks to absolve the state of its responsibility in providing basic services such as health, education, nutrition and livelihood.
• Cash transfer scheme such as PM-KISAN cannot be substituted for subsidies and other institutional support systems such as the National Food Security Act-powered public distribution system. In fact, such cash transfer schemes could be counterproductive and may lead to more distress.
• Cash transfers do not solve the following problems which are the reasons for the current agrarian crisis. The Agrarian crisis is not just of low incomes in agriculture. The genesis of the current crisis lies in the faulty and ad hoc export-import policy, lack of infrastructure and cartelisation and collusion in agricultural markets, which have prevented farmers from realizing the market prices for agricultural produce.
• Cash transfer is neither a substitute for the structural reforms needed in agriculture, nor does it adequately compensate the farmer for the risks and uncertainty of crop cultivation.
• In the absence of proper tenancy records, it will also benefit the absentee landlords.
• It is no substitute for the lack of investment in agriculture, which has declined at 2.3% per annum in real terms.

Conclusion:

PM-KISAN is an ambitious scheme that has the potential to deliver significant welfare outcomes. However, the current top-down, rushed approach of the government ignores governance constraints and is therefore likely to result in failure. An alternative bottom-up strategy and well-planned implementation mechanism would allow weaknesses to be identified and rectified at the local level. The most effective modalities can then be scaled nationally and ensure success.