In a big win for us, the Draft National Education Policy 2019 (NEP) recently released by the Government makes clear recommendations for states to implement the idea of separation of functions to reform school and higher education in India. Separation of functions is one of the foremost principles of good governance without which no structural reforms in education are possible.
At CCS, we have continued to build evidence, and advocate for the effective uncoupling of functions in education governance, particularly, separating the role of the state as the provider, regulator, financier and assessor of education. In 2018, we released the Reforming Education Governance in India: Policy Blueprint for Separation of Powers Report proposing a separation of the functions of service-delivery, assessment of learning outcomes, and adjudication of disputes into three independent bodies. This recommendation was also presented to the Kasturirangan Committee, the apex body headed by Dr K. Kasturirangan tasked with developing the NEP.
To further this idea, this June, we attended two roundtables on the draft NEP organised by the Centre for Policy Research and the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights. On 25th June, we organised our monthly dialogue with 13 journalists on the NEP, representing leading media houses like Dainik Bhaskar, ETV Bharat, Amar Ujala among others.
The National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA), has also launched a National Education Policy Campaign with regional meetings held in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, with over 1300 attendees.