Plea In Supreme Court Seeking Uniform Education System With Common Syllabus
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking uniform education, through a common syllabus and curriculum, for all the school children aged between 6-14 years, across the country.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking uniform education, through a common syllabus and curriculum, for all the school children aged between 6-14 years, across the country. The plea has sought directions to look into the feasibility of establishing "One Nation One Education Board" by merging the curriculum of Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The plea has been filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey.
The plea has also sought directions on the possibility of introducing a standard textbook having chapters on fundamental rights, fundamental duties, directive principles of state policy and the golden goals set out in the Preamble, and make its study compulsory for all the children aged 6-14 years throughout the country.
On common syllabus it said the Centre and states have not taken appropriate steps to introduce uniform education system having common syllabus and common curriculum in spirit of Article 21A (free and compulsory education). Children may not be able to exercise their fundamental right under Article 21A unless the Centre and the states provide value based uniform education, the plea said.
"To achieve substantive socio-economic equality and justice, it is necessary that syllabus and curriculum in all primary schools are similar whether it is run by management, local body, Union or State Government," the plea said.
It contended that from last ten years data, it can be seen that even though children are pursuing free and compulsory education under RTE Act, the students do not perform well as compared to CBSE affiliated convent and private schools. Therefore, value-based uniform education having common syllabus and common curriculum is need of the day, it said.
For starting common curriculum in schools, the petition has sought directions to ascertain the feasibility of constituting a National Education Council (on the lines of GST Council) or National Education Commission to implement the system.
It also said that since each education board has its own syllabus and curriculum and entrance examinations are based on CBSE, so prevailing system of entrance exams doesn't provide equal opportunity to all students.
On a standardized entrance exam, it has said "state board students are not equipped to compete with students of CBSE affiliated schools. Even this disparity cannot be fully removed but Union can establish a standardized entrance system for college and university aspirants."
In 2016, the then Education Minister Prakash Javadekar had informed the Lok Sabha that the government does not propose to introduce a common curriculum in CBSE and state boards as a uniform syllabus does not take into account the local contexts, culture and language. He was asked whether the government proposed to introduce a common curriculum for CBSE, state boards, the National Institute of Open Schooling and the Indian School Certificate Examination Board.
(With Inputs From PTI)
