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Joshi opposes PMO bid to divide Education Department

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The Prime Minister's Office and the Human Resource Development Ministry have locked horns over a proposal to divide the Education Department. The deadlock has disrupted the functioning of the department, where only routine files are being moved now.

The proposal to divide Education Department was mooted when the jumbo sized Atal Behari Vajpayee cabinet was being constituted. According to the proposal drafted by some senior PMO bureaucrats, the Education Department would be divided into two: upto class 8 under the department of elementary education, and all classes above under the department of higher education.

HRD minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi had expressed reservations about the proposal and had shot off a strongly worded missive to the prime minister last month. The PMO has not yet responded to the letter, sources said.

The letter said the division would hamper the functioning of the ministry, and would come at a time when the ministry was trying to achieve synergy by merging departments.

Currently, the education department is headed by high-profile IAS officer M K Kaw, who has thrown his weight behind Dr Joshi.

And even as the stand-off continues, Dr Joshi is going ahead with some major changes in his ministry.

For one, he has decided to create a new department for elementary education. The decision has not gone down well with the officials attached to the Department of Primary Education Programme, a foreign funded scheme which has proven very successful. Besides DPEP, the ministry also has a Bureau of Elementary Education under its wings.

Sources in DPEP said, they have been told by Kaw that the minister's decision in effect means that DPEP would be eventually renamed.

But sources in the know insist that "it is not going to be a mere renaming. There will be structural changes too."

DPEP has always been surrounded by controversies because of its novel syllabus and teaching methods. The scheme is currently being implemented in 14 states across the country.

The DPEP, which incorporates songs and outdoor activities in its syllabus, has found enough critics. Besides, in states like Kerala, the government has utilised the DPEP funds to revise the syllabus to incorporate their ideological propaganda. The Left Democratic Front government in Kerala has incorporated a lesson on Marxist ideologue, late EMS Namboodiripad, in one of the textbooks.

The Government of India finances 85 % of the DPEP grant, while state implementation agencies and concerned state governments provide the rest.

The central government's share constitutes mostly external funding. Currently, a total credit of $685 million has been approved for the two phases of DPEP.

The European Union is providing a grant of 150 million Euros. The UK is extending a grant of $80.21 million, while the grant from the Netherlands amounts to $25.8 million.

The first phase of the programme was launched in 42 districts in the states of Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. In the second phase, the programme has been launched in 80 districts of Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

Meanwhile, autonomous bodies such as the Indian Council of Historical Research continue to grapple with the massive changes made in their structures by Dr Joshi.

Leftist historians and sociologists have lost their decades of control over the ICHR and the Indian Council for Social Sciences Research with Joshi appointing known Sangh Parivar sympathisers in their place.

Some decisions taken by Joshi's appointees have led to an uproar in the council. Sources said the HRD ministry has also reversed several decisions regarding promotion of senior staff members at ICHR.

At least three deputy directors of ICHR were demoted recently by the HRD ministry, and at least one of them has moved court against the ministry.

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