PIL in SC seeks uniform education system with common syllabus

PTI, Jun 19, 2020, 3:21 PM IST

New Delhi: A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking uniform education, having a common syllabus and curriculum for all the children aged between 6-14 years, across the country.

The plea filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has sought directions to look into the feasibility of establishing “One Nation One Education Board” by merging the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Board and the Central Board of Secondary Education.

The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, said the Centre and states have not taken appropriate steps to introduce a uniform education system having a common syllabus and common curriculum in the 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.

The PIL said although the medium of instructions may differ according to the official language of the concerned state, the syllabus and curriculum must be common for all children aged 6-14 years.

The petition has sought directions to ascertain the feasibility of constituting a National Education Council (on the lines of GST Council) or the National Education Commission to implement the system.

At present each education board has its own syllabus and curriculum and entrance examinations are based on CBSE, so the prevailing system doesn’t provide equal opportunity to all students, it said.

The plea has also sought directions to ascertain the feasibility of introducing a standard textbook having chapters on fundamental rights, duties, directive principles 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.

It contended that from the 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 a common syllabus and common curriculum is need of the day, it 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,” the plea said.