From Preamble to practice: Promoting Constitutional values through education

After the introduction of the NEP, there has been a definite push for the incorporation of constitutional values to augment the process by which education is imparted in India.
Image used for representational purposes (Express Photo | Parveen Negi)
Image used for representational purposes (Express Photo | Parveen Negi)
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4 min read

Two weeks after Pandit Nehru delivered his fabled “Tryst with Destiny” speech from the floor of the Constitution Hall of the Parliament Hall, a seven-member drafting Committee under the stewardship of Dr B R Ambedkar embarked on the journey to draft what would eventually become the Constitution of India, 1950.

This guiding document enacted by our founding fathers would outline several lofty goals for us as a nation – goals that we still pursue seventy-five years hence. It is a document that is both realistic and aspirational at the same time. They acknowledged the various societal ills that hinder our ability to pursue our own development and progress, while simultaneously charting out what they believed was the most realistic path to what could be “a more perfect union”, to borrow the turn of phrase. At the very outset, the framers outlined their goals as part of the Preamble to the Constitution – Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

One of the ways by which the framers stated their goals may be accomplished was through the promotion of educational pursuits for the upliftment of the underprivileged through constitutional means. More recently, after the introduction of the National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP), there has been a definite push, both at the school and higher-education level, for the incorporation of constitutional values to augment the process by which education is imparted in India. In promotion of constitutional values, the NEP outlines access to quality education for underrepresented and marginalized groups as a significant policy agenda.

Among its many stated objectives, the NEP seeks to promote holistic education by fostering a sense of multi-disciplinarity. The hope is that this move can contribute towards the erosion of the historical walls built around the silos of different disciplines over the many years. Moreover, this policy goal has been included to ensure that both curricular and pedagogic practices are mindful of and cater to India’s diverse social fabric. While the unidimensional approach which focused on singular disciplines did contribute towards scientific and scholarly development in the past, the future will necessitate a more multi-focal approach towards research and analysis. This move under the NEP can aid in facilitating higher education institutions to eliminate any misconceived hierarchies across disciplines and foster a sense of fraternity across scholars and practitioners of different disciplines.

The NEP also seeks to further the cause of institutional autonomy, both at an administrative and academic level. While it is relevant to note that this would be subject to a fairly arduous and rigorous accreditation process, the goal of autonomy can serve as a significant incentive for educators to put their best foot forward in the gestational years of an institution’s activities to ensure that it can provide the most effective educational experience to students enrolled with them. The freedom and independence that is the promised land for higher education institutions is likely to create an environment that fosters innovation and encourages critical thinking. These in turn will contribute towards the products of such an educational experience being the best equipped to be productive contributors to society.

The NEP also seeks to accomplish the goal of equity and inclusion in higher education. This goal is one that has been constitutionally pursued from the time of its institution in 1950. Initially, through the Directive Principles of State Policy, specifically Article 45, which originally sought to have the state provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of fourteen. This provision was later amended to restrict this state duty to children only till the age of six after the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002. This, coupled with provisions for affirmative action under Part III of the Constitution that outline the fundamental rights of citizens, creates an environment where the state actively seeks to ensure that an individual’s economic, social, political or other constraints do not serve as an impediment to their ability to secure upward mobility in any aspect of their lives.

Significantly, the NEP sets forth an agenda of inclusion and equity in education by proposing a multi-pronged approach. These measures incorporate measures such as inclusive admissions criteria, allocating funds for access to education for marginalized groups, ensuring universal access for students with disabilities, and the creation of Special Education Zones that are tasked with an agenda of providing quality education to marginalised groups. While previous educational policies contemplated inclusion in education on the grounds of caste and gender, the NEP goes beyond these two categories to also include transgender persons, persons with disabilities and economically weaker sections. The NEP brings to life our Constitution by aligning educational policy goals with recent legal and constitutional developments that have ushered in inclusion of newer categories of marginalised persons.

Reasonable people can debate and disagree about whether the NEP as a guide is going to be successful in delivering on the goals that it has set for itself. But it is relevant to note that the NEP, like any policy, is user sensitive. Additionally, the NEP, like our Constitution, is an aspirational document. In the realm of adherence to constitutional values, it is up to those who implement this policy to ensure that during the course of this process efforts are made to safeguard the interests of all the various stakeholders to the educational process.

(The author is Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the School of Law, RV University, Bangalore)

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