Kapil Sibal

Recent diplomatic tussle between India and China seems to be getting better of the proposed educational pact between the two countries. However, it’s still not official and seems more like speculation. The proposal to mutually recognize university degrees of both the countries was to be discussed in September. Actually, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal is scheduled to visit China from September 10 to 16 and it was thought to be on his must-do list.

HRD minister Kapil Sibal, HRD minister is seriously upset about the botched National Education Tribunal Bill in Rajya Sabha. Mind you, it is not the opposition but his own party colleague Keshav Rao whose spirited show deferred the passing of the bill.

Traditional Sanskrit schools called ‘ved pathshalas’ are now seeking exemption from the Right to Education (RTE) act. The demand is being raised after Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal exempted madrassas from the law. According to the ved pathshalas, the rules and regularities of the law could hamper their oral tradition practiced to memorise the texts.

Dissatisfied with the way the initial draft of the proposed Educational Tribunals Bill 2010 has shaped out, the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development has said that the whole procedure of forming the initial draft of the bill has been carried out in haste; ignoring important stakeholders and tabling the draft presuming their consent.

Contemplating introduction of regulation in distance education, in order to enhance its standard and quality, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal indicated that soon a regulatory mechanism might come into picture for the body managing distance education programmes.

Parliament gave its nod of approval to the Bill to amend the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act. Now, the Centre will take a decision on the status of the minority educational institutions without consulting state governments.

The fact that India is experiencing a grave shortage of teachers to see the RTE through has been known to all. However, with the Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal pegging the deficiency at over 1.2 million teachers; immense pressure has come on the state governments to fasten the recruitment drive to minimise the teacher-student ratio at the earliest.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal’s plan to have value education included in school curriculums will have to wait for now if opinion of the experts he is consulting on the matter has any indication. They have advised Sibal against any move to create a separate value education curriculum.

With the core curriculum in science almost ready to be released, the Union Ministry for Human Resource and Development (MHRD) is all set to turn its eyes to the commerce stream now. The plans to develop a common commerce curriculum for all school boards across the country were announced by the Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal, on the sidelines of the Indo-US summit on higher education in Mumbai.
 

After the overstretched tussle between the Centre and the states over the distribution of funds to be contributed for the implementation of the Right To Education Act; the Centre has finally given in to the demands of the states and has decided to increase its share of financial contribution to a whopping 70 percent; hopefully putting an end to the prolonged hue and cry from majority of the states, citing scarcity of funds.