Bring back Education
from the ‘Concurrent List’ to the ‘State List’
of the Constitution
The announcement of the Prime Minister of India, Dr.Manmohan Singh that the Government is contemplating of creating an Education Commission to implement a uniform syllabus throughout the country is a very dangerous and deplorable one. It is an veiled attempt to impose the culture of Sanskrit and Hindi on the other people. It is also a gross interference in the affairs and denying the rights of the States.
The present rulers conveniently forget that Dr.B.R.Ambedkar and other founding fathers of our Constitution, have wisely put Education in the State List of the Constitution. The main and important reason for placing Education in the State List is that the Education taught in one state differs from that of the other state due to the vast differences in their culture, language, civilization and way of living. Hence the idea of implementing a uniform syllabus throughout India is an absurd one, equally ‘impracticable’.
During the period of Emergency imposed by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Education was the silently shifted from ‘the State List’ to ‘The Concurrent List’ without any notification or debate in the Parliament or bringing an amendment to the Constitution. Even the educationists and the public were kept in the dark about this change. Even if they were aware of it, the atmosphere prevailing then was not conducive to express their views freely and frankly. There was a conspiracy of silence!
The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal has announced that national level entrance examinations will be held not only for professional colleges, but also for arts and science colleges from the year 2013.
The State Government of Tamil Nadu has decided to dispense with the conduct of entrance examinations for the admission of students to the professional courses, which enabled vast number of poor students from rural villages, especially the students of the oppressed SCs/STs, and educationally and socially backward classes, to join in the professional courses like medicine and engineering. The vested interests, mostly of upper castes and elites Aryan- Brahmins are on the look out to find ways and means to deny the opportunities thrown open to these oppressed people, in connivance with the bureaucrats of the Government of India and institutions like The Medical Council of India, Bar Council etc. Introduction of the national level entrance examinations is one among them. Such entrance examinations will shut the opportunities to the poor students of SCs., STs, and OBCs from rural areas to undergo collegiate and professional education.
Chief Ministers, Educationists, people who want to save the uniqueness of various languages, plurality of their cultures and civilizations, above all - the parents, should come forward to oppose the present move of the Government of India for the following reasons:
1) The Government of India is not a Unitary Government, which can act arbitrarily without consulting the state governments, but only a Federal - Union Government accepting the principle of Federal Governance of the country by a Union Govt. and State Governments of various states.
2) On the basis of the unauthorised shifting of Education from ‘the State List’ to ‘the Concurrent List’ made in 1976, the attempt now being made to introduce a uniform syllabus throughout India is nothing but a plot to shift education from ‘the Concurrent List’ to ‘ the Central List’.
It is meaningless to equate this Education Commission with the Election Commission.
Can it be ordered that people in all parts of India should eat only wheat and should not eat rice?
Unity is different from uniformity . The Prime Minister and the Government of India should not confuse these terms. Late Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru also insisted that unity must be found in diversity. Trying to make unity without miding or respecting the diversity, by forcibly implementing a uniform education in a multi-linguistic, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-civilizational society is a dangerous move which will grossly affect the unity and integration of the nation.
To create awareness about the issue among the public and to mobilise their support against the proposals of the Government of India, the Dravidar Kazhagam has organised and conducted a Conference and Symposium on this subject on 25th September, 2011 at Periyar Thidal, Chennai-7 in which a former Judge of the High Court of Madras Justice A.K. Rajan, prominent educationists, Dr.A.Ramasamy, former Vice-Chancellor of Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Prof Dr.M.Naganathan, former Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Commission of Tamilnadu and Thiru T.K.S.Ilangovan, Member of Parliament participated and expressed their views.
