Curriculum choices

shame-saffronisation

Astrology as graduate level course. IIM’s being brought under greater ‘accountability ‘ of the Human Resource Ministry. ‘Mistakes’ in school texts from various states, usually in social sciences. Murli Manohar Joshi’s strident campaign to ‘cleanse’ the Indian education of ‘unnecessary factors seemed to be headed for unprecedented heights. When the surprise elections of 2004 suddenly cut the grand plans short.

Though couched as all these steps were in ‘going back to the glory of the ancient Indians’ or ‘giving greater access to masses’ by proposing to lower the IIM fees to Rs 30,000 pa, the steps only caused greater alarm, generating some unnecessary debate. The controversy came to rest when the UPA Government withdrew the previous directive, maintaining the previous fees while providing for a full waiver for students whose gross family income totaled less than 200,000 pa. But the government is still to address the issue of such twisting of rules to suit individual agendas.

- Suman Tarafdar