Resource persons –
Mr. Jaspal Singh, Principal Guru Nanak College, Nagpur
Mr. Sahid Shareef, Chairman of RTE Action Committee, Nagpur

On 25th of October, 2015, SIO Maharashtra North organized a table talk to discuss the educational policy put forth by the MHRD in the city of Nagpur. The program was started by the tilawat-e-Quran i.e.; recitation of Quran by Br Siddique. Later to throw some light on the topic Br Thouseef Madikeri (National Secretary SIO of India) introduced the topic to the cadre and presented his views on the new educational policy. He highlighted the importance of it and while presenting his views on the topic he said “The present educational policy could hardly return the expected result as it is not fulfilling the objectives of the education but instead promoting commercialization “. Further while discussing on the policies he stated some flaws with suggestions to overcome it. Some of which are as follows:
1) RTE is just limited to one claw from that of 38 which is it to provide 25% of seats in private school to the poor students and remaining claws are far away from practical implementation.
2) The concept of neighborhood school should be implemented on a large scale as per Kothari commission of 1964.

3) By bringing skill development act the needs of the corporate are given more priority and child labor act is being modified.

He also added that 33 themes put forth by the MHRD for consultation lacks vision. These discussions are been carried throughout the nation in about 20 cities and it would be published in the form of a suggestion booklet to MHRD.

After Introductory words there were speeches of the two dignitaries Mr Shahid Shareef (Chairman of RTE action committee Nagpur and educational activist) and Mr Jaspal Sing (Principal Guru Nanak Jr. College Nagpur). Mr. Shahid Shareef said on the occasion that “Our educational strata is just like a cast system which is promoting inequality and injustice, where higher class goes with the ICSE and CBSE schools, Middle class goes with State board Schools and lastly the lower class goes with the Corporation Schools” As a member of RTE action committee he highlighted some of the practical problems in the implementation of the RTE act.
Mr. Jaspal Sing discussed the practical problems regarding quality teaching as follow:
1) Due to the overburden of non educational work (such as census duty, survey, etc.) on teachers they are unable to concentrate on their pupils.
2) The strength of 30-40 students per class should be maintained for a better quality teaching.
3) Paradigm of teachers and student relation is shifted from teaching and learning to client and salesman.
4) He further added that ’no detention’ policy is one of the reason behind poor quality of teaching in education. The punishment should be there, but with a well defined criterion.
5) The new education policy is lacking the promotion of values among the students.
After the enlightening talk of the dignitaries the house was kept open for the discussion. The participants discussed about the policy and presented their suggestions to improve the policy. Few concerns which were discussed are-
1) National curriculum framework of 2005 must be the part of the policy so that the saffronization of syllabus is avoided and it should be implemented properly.
2) Privatization of education has its own pros and cons but a check has to be kept by the Govt.
3) The commercialization of education is a topic of great concern and the new policy is being channelized to fulfill it, as education can’t be a commodity if it is so then it decreases the quality and increases discrimination.
4) Quality education is a big challenge before us some steps are been taken and still lots has to be taken.
Concluding address was presented by Br. Rehan Fazal (Zonal President SIO MNZ).He said that new policy should address the deficiency of ethos in students and should produce leaders rather than products for MNC’s. At the end program was concluded with the vote of thanks given by Dr Adnanul Haque Khan (PR Sec SIO MNZ).