Ramamurti Committee -M A Finalists

Ramamurti Committee

The National Policy of Education 1986 has implied that all children, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex, have access to elementary education of a comparable quality. While reviewing the implementation of this policy, the Ramamurti Committee (1990) considered the development of Common School System (CSS) to be “very vital component of overall strategy for securing equality and social justice in education” (in Chakraborty: 2006).  Bihar has taken the lead in starting the process of adopting a uniform educational system and has constituted a Common School System Commission (CSSC) to look into its long term implementation. The three member commission is to submit report within nine months and will focus on ways to introduce the CSS that aims at providing uniform education without discrimination based on one’s economic condition to all boys and girls of the state.

It is important to recall the Education Commission (1966) recommendation that put forward the concept of neighbour-hood schools for equitable quality education for all children. But with the growing number of private schools and deteriorating standard of government schools led to the delocalization of schooling in search of better quality education. Only either poor or marginal people send their children to government schools or those who could not secure admission of their children in these schools for one reason or other. The recommendation of the above commission is the terms of reference for the CSS Commission.

The government has also nurtured the concept of differential treatment in schooling for different categories of children in terms of Kendriya Vidyalayas(KVs), Sainik Schools, Navodaya vidyalayas (NVs)  etc.  However noble the mission of the government may be in opening such schools but they make these exclusive systems inconsistent with the common school system.  The Acharya Ramamurti Report also criticized the NV school system as it was very costly and inconsistent with the idea of common schooling for all. Each school should be developed into quality school only then the concept of neighbour-hood schooling can get voluntary materialization. Otherwise there is only one way left and that is to send all children to government designed common school i.e. forcing all to study in schools where the government wants them to study.

Ramamurti Report on Education in Retrospect Amrik Singh In May 1990 the National Front government appointed a committee under Acharya Ramamurti to go into the distortions in the country's educational system. The committee's report outlines its principal concerns as equity and social justice, decentralisation of educational management, establishment of a participative social order, inculcation of enlightened and humane values and empowerment for work. This paper undertakes a detailed evaluation of the contents of the report.