Education - what did the 2004 Manifestos of the various political parties have to say?

The Bharitya Janata Party (BJP) details their plans on education in their 2004 Manifesto, with some specific targets. Here're the relevant extracts from their manifesto, relating to education.

1. Total spending on education will be raised to 6% of the GDP in five years, with enlarged public-private partnership at every level of the educational pyramid.
2. Literacy rate of 85% will be achieved in five years. Our vision is to see that Indian society becomes fully literate by 2015. For this, we will launch a multi-pronged campaign to ensure that every child goes to school, every school is made accountable to the community, and every village and town is made accountable for its quality education status. Appropriate resources both from Government and non-government sources will be mobilized to match our ambitious goals. Innovative tools like computer-based and TV-promoted functional literacy will be employed. The 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' will be made into a people's movement.
3. Spread of education among SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities, and activities aimed at removing gender disparities in education at all levels, will receive increased support.
4. A special fund of Rs. 1,000 crore a year will be created, partially through a cess on all non-needy students, to improve all primary school buildings in rural areas in five years.
5. "Akshaya Patra", as a national mid-day meal program, will be made operational.
6. The entire school and college education system will be overhauled and made employment-oriented. Opportunities for skill development and vocational training will be maximized.
7. A Standards Improvement Campaign, to be named after Dr. Syama Prasad Mookherjee (who became the youngest ever vice-chancellor of the prestigious Calcutta University), will be launched to raise the quality of education in colleges and universities. Institutions that perform well will be suitably recognized.
8. No student would be deprived of access to higher education for lack of resources. Scholarships and soft loans would be made widely available to all needy students. A National Education Development Fund will be established for this purpose.
9. While encouraging private investment, effective steps will be taken to curb commercialization of education.
10. The focus on Indian culture, heritage, and ethical values in syllabi will be strengthened. Character-building and all-round development of the student's personality will be emphasized. Sports, physical training, and social service will be mainstreamed into the educational system.
11. The growing de-emphasis of Bharatiya languages in school and college education will be checked. Teaching in the mother tongue will be encouraged.
12. Efforts will be intensified for the propagation of Sanskrit.
13. Establishment of hostels, especially for women's education, will be encouraged.
14. Administration of our educational institutions will be freed of bureacratism. Community participation in managing their activities and monitoring their performance will be encouraged.
15. Centers of excellence in higher education are India's pride. They will have requisite autonomy to become the best in the world.
16. Five new IITs will be established before 2005.
17. Our vision is to make India a global hub for higher education and regain the glory of the Nalanda era. For this, an action plan will be prepared to elevate at least 25 Indian universities and 100 colleges to international standards in every respect. All our IITs, NITs, IIMs, IIScs, AIIMS-like medical institutes, and other reputed higher educational institutions (both existing and proposed) will be further supported. Public-private participation will be fully activated to realize the above vision, which would not only raise India's stature globally but also enable our country to earn significant foreign exchange.

Here're the extracts from the 2004 Manifesto of the Indian National Congress, relating to education.

1. The Congress pledges to raise public spending in education to at least 6% of GDP with at least half of this amount being spent in primary and secondary schools.
2. A cess will he proposed on all central taxes to finance the commitment to universalize access to quality basic education.
3. A National Commission on Education will be set up to allocate resources and monitor programmes for compliance with national priorities.
4. The Congress will ensure that all institutions of higher learning in science, technology, social sciences and management will retain the sense of autonomy that they have enjoyed in previous Congress regimes. Academic excellence and professional competence would be the sole criteria for all appointments to bodies like the ICHR, ICSSR, UGC, NCERT etc.
5. Apart from increasing the supply of loan scholarships and refinance through banks, it will also establish a Education Development Finance Company along the lines of HDFC to provide loans at affordable rates to all those who cannot afford the costs of college and university education in science, engineering and medicine.
   This would help to boost disbursal of education loans which are relatively safe lending options for the financial institutions, in terms of recovery. But in addition to an EDFC, what may also be needed is a National Education Bank charged with promoting the growth of education credit and finance, akin to the National Housing Bank, which is charged with promoting the growth of housing credit and finance.
6. Education at all stages would be free in all respects for boys and girls belonging to dalit and adivasi communities.
7. A national cooked nutritious mid-day meal scheme will be introduced in primary and secondary schools across the country.
8. To enhance the employability of our youth, systematic efforts will be made to vocationalise secondary education and to establish at least one industrial training institute in each development block of the country through creative public-private partnerships.
9. The Congress commits itself to amending the Constitution to establish a Commission for Minority Educational Institutions that will provide direct affiliation for minority professional institutions to central universities. Special steps will be taken to spread modern and technical education among women in minority communities particularly.
   I don't understand what the first part of this means. Is the intention to free minority professional institutions from having to affiliate with any state university?

Here're the extracts from the 2004 Manifesto of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), relating to education.

1. The 93rd Constitutional amendment promising free and compulsory education for children till the elementary stage must be amended to ensure the State fulfills its commitment to make education a basic right for children upto the age of 14 by providing financial backing. Free and compulsory school education can be attained only if it is accompanied by free mid-day meals, provision of textbooks and other education materials.
2. Upgradation of the salaries of elementary school teachers and providing schools equipped with basic facilities.
3. Syllabus and curriculum to inculcate secularism, progressive values, scientific temper and national unity.
4. Ensure social control over private educational institutions for regulation of admissions, fees and content of education. Central legislation to empower the states to regulate self-financing institutions.
   This is a complex issue. The recent Judgement of the Supreme Court on commercialisation of education in Delhi's schools has brought this issue to the forefront and it needs to be debated at length.
5. Allocation of 10 per cent of union budget for education.
   This figure has been 13% or higher for the past 10 years, so this is very much achievable.
6. Support to mass literacy programmes.
7. Democratisation of the higher education system and development of vocational education.
   Democratisation is too generic a word. It is unclear what they have in mind.

The manifestos of other parties like the DMK and the Nationalist Congress Party address education in either very general and superficial terms or in very narrow terms

According to the DMK's Manifesto,

1. DMK will demand the withdrawal of the text books produced by the NCERT which contain derogatory myths on minorities and Dravidians.
   
2. DMK will demand the allocation of 6% of GDP for education as recommended by the Kothari commission. The present allocation of 3.2% to education in the 10th plan need to be raised to 6%

and the Nationalist Congress Party's Manifesto,

1. Equal educational facilities would be provided for the rich and the poor alike.
   
2. Better implementation would be ensured of Universalisation of Primary Education, vocationalisation of secondary education and modernisation of Higher Education.
   
3. Sufficient funds would be provided for infrastructure for imparting universal and compulsory primary education.
   
4. Facility for quality education would be provided to the less privileged sections of society.
   
5. Eradication of illiteracy would be given top priority. Computer Education would be encouraged.

The ideas and policies common to most of the manifestos include

• Allocation of funds upto 6% of GDP towards expenditure on education.
  It has never gone beyond 4.3% of GDP till 2001-02, despite an official target of 6% being set as far back as 1968, when the Kothari Commission first recommended the 6% target. So it will be a tall order to achieve.
• A national noon meal program to be introduced
• A special cess to be imposed (the BJP says on non-needy students and the Congress says on taxes) to raise funds
• A special vehicle to be created to provide education funding for students (the BJP proposes a National Education Fund and the Congress proposes an Education Development Finance Corporation)