Author Name:   ravimor

Peaceful and Healthy mind is a good recipient of Knowledge. Therefore Health of Mind defines the health of student. Conceptual framework of any National policy is always provided by the Constitutional Document of that nation. Constitution of India also provide for framework of National policy on Education...

Review of National Education Policy from Student’s Mental Health Perspective

I. Conceptual framework:
Peaceful and Healthy mind is a good recipient of Knowledge. Therefore Health of Mind defines the health of student. Conceptual framework of any National policy is always provided by the Constitutional Document of that nation. Constitution of India also provide for framework of National policy on Education. In addition to the Constitution of India, International conventions and treaties to which is the Party also guide the Policy of any Nation.

Constitution specifically provides under Part III for Fundamental rights. Right to Life and liberty under Article 21 and Right to free and Compulsory Education under Article 21A, constitutes basic framework for Right to education and right to mental health. In addition to this Part-IV of the Constitution deals with Directive Principles of State policy, also issue directives for the government of India to formulate any policy based on public health and wel-being, No policy shall deviate from the same, else such Government will loose public support and surely to be ruled out in next elections. Thus Fundamental rights and Directive Principle of State policy together constitutes pillars on which National policy on Education shall rest.

India is also signatory to many International conventions and treaties, which includes Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966, International covenant on Economic, social and Cultural rights 1966, and Convention on child Rights 1989. In addition to this many bilateral nad regional treaties are sighed by India which obligate to form policy on Mental health, Education etc.

National policy on Education was first promulgated in the year 1968, since then it has been reviewed twice in the year 1986, and 1992. During all these years policy on education has not gone much in change, though policy on Mental health was declare separately as a national program but none of this development in the field of Mental health form part of Education policy in India till today.

Education in India since beginning is rightly considered as a tool to bridge the gap between work and hands, therefore rather than concentrating on different levels of education, history speaks that focus here is always on Primary and secondary education. In this backdrop three policy statements are place on record by the Government of India till date.

II. Constitutional Provisions regarding Education and Mental Health
This is indeed necessary to study the Constitutional provisions which have bearing on present subject. While going through Articles, Parts, Different Chapters and Schedule attached to it. Following provisions are found worth discussion here, for the purpose of plane reading they are reproduced below.

Provisions of Constitution mentioned above need to be understood in the context of Right to education as well as right to right to mental health, as these are the provisions which imoposes duty on the Government to frame the policy in right directions failing which the Rights constitution intent to protect will go without protection. There are many judgements of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, from Mohini Jain, then Unnikrishnan Vs State of A.P. and lastly T.M.A. Pai foundation case, Court has specifically read right to education into right to life under Article 21. The only thing is that Right to mental Health is still not considered by the Courts as integral part of Right to Education.

III. International Conventions and Documents
There are many International Conventions and Documents which emphasizes the need of Right to education as well as Right to Mental Health. India is also signatory to many International conventions and treaties, which includes Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966, International covenant on Economic, social and Cultural rights 1966, and Convention on child Rights 1989. In addition to this many bilateral and regional treaties are sighed by India which obligates to form policy on mental health, Education etc.

III.I Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children

Article 29. (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Bare reading of above provisions of the UDHR reveals that, duty is cast upon every country to established local mechanism for the protection of right of every child to education, many provisions above speak of right of every human being to be treated well and shall have right to protect health including mental health, but so far as India is concerned very little is done in this direction, and policy statement on education does not found any mention about mental health of students.

There are other International Documents Such as ICCPR and ICESCR which also imposes similar responsibility on state parties; beside this a specialized International Convention on Child Rights is also ratified by India.

IV. National Policy on education
There have so far been mainly two comprehensive statements of the National Policy on Education, viz. those of 1968 and 1986. The former contained decisions of the Central Government on the recommendations of the National Commission on Education, 1964-66. The latter was a result of the renewed priority assigned to Education by the government of the Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, who was Prime Minister during 1984-89. The 1986 policy was reviewed by a Committee constituted in 1990 under the chairmanship of Acharya Ramamurti. On the basis of the recommendations of this Committee, certain provisions of the 1986 policy were modified in 1992. Thus, in all, the following three comprehensive national policy statements exist on Education:

IV.I National Policy on Education (NPE) 1968:
There are in all 17 principles on which government of India resolves to promote development of education in India, they are as follows;
1. free And compulsory education
2. Status, Emoluments and Education of Teacher
3. Development of languages
4. Equalization of Educational opportunity
5. Identification of Talent
6. Work – Experience and National Service
7. Science education and research
8. Education for Agriculture and Industry
9. Production of books
10. Examinations
11. Secondary Examinations
12. University Education
13. Part Time Education and correspondence education
14. Spread of Literacy and Adult Education
15. Games and sports
16. Education of Minorities
17. The Educational Structure

Even a birds view of above principles can get the idea that element of Mental health was not in sight at the time of promulgation of first policy statement on Education in India. Moreover Education was directly linked with Agriculture and Industry, that is with jobs and skills rather than means of individual intellectual development, education was considered to be a tool for getting jobs in the market.

This attitude and misconception about education has been percolated so as to reach the point where students shown least interest in the subject like arts, due to least opportunity of employment in the field. Another reviewed Education policy was declared in the year 1986.

IV.II National Policy on Education 1986

Introductory statement of this policy speaks as under:
1.1 Education has continued to evolve, diversify and extend its reach and coverage since the dawn of human history. Every country develops its system of education to express and promote its unique socio- cultural identity and also to meet the challenges of the times. There are moments in history when a new direction has to be given to an age- old process. That moment is today.

1.2 The country has reached a stage in its economic and technical development when a major effort must be made to derive the maximum benefit from the assets already created and to ensure that the fruits of change reach all sections. Education is the highway to that goal.

1.3 With this aim in view, the Government of India announced in January 1985 that a new Education Policy would be formulated for the country. A comprehensive appraisal of the existing educational scene was made, followed by a countrywide debate. The views and suggestions received from different quarters were carefully studied.

Body of the Policy runs into following important principals:
# The 1968 education policy and after
# The essence and role of education
# National system of education
# Education for equality
# Reorganisation of education at different stages
# Technical and management education
# Making the system work
# Reorienting the content and process of education
# The teacher
# The management of education
# Resources and review
# The future

In the renewed Education policy though change scenario of education was taken into consideration and specific statement was made regarding Technical and Management Education, i.e. Higher Professional education, but still element of Primary Education played dominating role while framing this policy. Centralise system for education was established to improve the quality of Education, but again topic of students health was not taken seriously, rather Games and sport which were dealt clearly in the first policy statement was kept in back foot, effect of that we can see today, we are still lagging in the area of Games and sport on the world map. Performance of a country in Games event is considered as a mirror of National health, impliedly health of student, here we are still not doing well.This policy statement was further modified in the year 1992.

IV.III. National Policy on Education 1986 (As modified in the year 1992)
A Committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Acharya Ramamurt in May 1990 to review NPE and to make recommendations for tits modifications. That Committee submitted its report in December 1990. At the request of Central Advisory Board of Education(CABE) a committee was set up in July 1991 under the Chairmanship of Shri N. Janardhan Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, to consider modifications in NPE taking into consideration the report of the Rammurti Committee and other relevant developments having a bearing on the policy, and to make recommendations regarding modifications to be made in the NPE. This Committee in its meeting held on 5-6 May 1992. While broadly endorsing the NPE, CABE has recommende a few changes in the Policy. Major areas of Changes introduced in the Modified Policy are Delinking Degrees from Jobs and Rural universities, apart from these two issues, no major change in trust area was introduce in modified NPE. Therefore issue of Students health was again not given any importance in any of the National Policy on Education.

V. Critical Analysis

Conceptual framework of any National policy is always provided by the Constitutional Document of that nation. Constitution of India also provide for framework of National policy on Education. In addition to the Constitution of India, International conventions and treaties to which is the Party also guide the Policy of any Nation.

Constitution specifically provides under Part III for Fundamental rights. Right to Life and liberty under Article 21 and Right to free and Compulsory Education under Article 21A, constitutes basic framework for Right to education and right to mental health. In addition to this Part-IV of the Constitution deals with Directive Principles of State policy, also issue directives for the government of India to formulate any policy based on public health and wel-being, No policy shall deviate from the same, else such Government will loose public support and surely to be ruled out in next elections. Thus Fundamental rights and Directive Principle of State policy together constitutes pillars on which National policy on Education shall rest.

India is also signatory to many International conventions and treaties, which includes Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966, International covenant on Economic, social and Cultural rights 1966, and Convention on child Rights 1989. In addition to this many bilateral nad regional treaties are sighed by India which obligate to form policy on Mental health, Education etc.

National policy on Education was first promulgated in the year 1968, since then it has been reviewed twice in the year 1986, and 1992. During all these years policy on education has not gone much in change, though policy on Mental health was declare separately as a national program but none of this development in the field of Mental health form part of Education policy in India till today.

Education in India since beginning is rightly considered as a tool to bridge the gap between work and hands, therefore rather than concentrating on different levels of education, history speaks that focus here is always on Primary and secondary education. In this backdrop three policy statements are place on record by the Government of India till date.

There are many judgements of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, from Mohini Jain, then Unnikrishnan Vs State of A.P. and lastly T.M.A. Pai foundation case, Court has specifically read right to education into right to life under Article 21. The only thing is that Right to mental Health is still not considered by the Courts as integral part of Right to Education.

There are many International Conventions and Documents which emphasizes the need of Right to education as well as Right to Mental Health. India is also signatory to many International conventions and treaties, which includes Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966, International covenant on Economic, social and Cultural rights 1966, and Convention on child Rights 1989. In addition to this many bilateral and regional treaties are sighed by India which obligates to form policy on mental health, Education etc.

Bare reading of above provisions of the UDHR reveals that, duty is cast upon every country to established local mechanism for the protection of right of every child to education, many provisions above speak of right of every human being to be treated well and shall have right to protect health including mental health, but so far as India is concerned very little is done in this direction, and policy statement on education does not found any mention about mental health of students.

There are other International Documents Such as ICCPR and ICESCR which also imposes similar responsibility on state parties; beside this a specialized International Convention on Child Rights is also ratified by India.

There have so far been mainly two comprehensive statements of the National Policy on Education, viz. those of 1968 and 1986. The former contained decisions of the Central Government on the recommendations of the National Commission on Education, 1964-66. The latter was a result of the renewed priority assigned to Education by the government of the Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, who was Prime Minister during 1984-89. The 1986 policy was reviewed by a Committee constituted in 1990 under the chairmanship of Acharya Ramamurti. On the basis of the recommendations of this Committee, certain provisions of the 1986 policy were modified in 1992. Thus, in all, the following three comprehensive national policy statements exist on Education

Even a birds view of above principles can get the idea that element of Mental health was not in sight at the time of promulgation of first policy statement on Education in India. Moreover Education was directly linked with Agriculture and Industry, that is with jobs and skills rather than means of individual intellectual development, education was considered to be a tool for getting jobs in the market.

This attitude and misconception about education has been percolated so as to reach the point where students shown least interest in the subject like arts, due to least opportunity of employment in the field. Another reviewed Education policy was declared in the year 1986.In the renewed Education policy though change scenario of education was taken into consideration and specific statement was made regarding Technical and Management Education, i.e. Higher Professional education, but still element of Primary Education played dominating role while framing this policy. Centralise system for education was established to improve the quality of Education, but again topic of students health was not taken seriously, rather Games and sport which were dealt clearly in the first policy statement was kept in back foot, effect of that we can see today, we are still lagging in the area of Games and sport on the world map. Performance of a country in Games event is considered as a mirror of National health, impliedly health of student, here we are still not doing well. This policy statement was further modified in the year 1992. Major areas of Changes introduced in the Modified Policy are Delinking Degrees from Jobs and Rural universities, apart from these two issues, no major change in trust area was introduce in modified NPE. Therefore issue of Students health was again not given any importance in any of the National Policy on Education.

VI. Major Findings, Conclusion and Suggestions

VI. I Major Findings:
There are three National policy statements on Education are India, First is of 1968, second is of 1986 which was again modified in the year 1992. Since then No review of National policy on Education is done.
Constitution of India provide for Right to Education as well as Right to Mental Health as Fundamental Rights.
In addition to Fundamental Rights to education and Health, Directive Principle of State policy under Constitution also provide for framing policy for better health and education to all in India.
Element of Mental Health is totally missing from the statements on policy on Education in India.
India is signatory to many international Documents and conventions including UDHR, ICCPR and ICESCR, which mandate issue of Mental health to be given priority while framing any National policy.
Mental Health Act 1986, is specialized statute for protection of Rights of the Mentally Challenged People, no mention is found in the Act about Students health.
National Program on mental Health also missed area of students health.

VI.II Conclusion and Suggestions:
1. It is therefore concluded that there is an urgent need to review National Policy on Education in India.
2. Mental Health of the Student shall form part of both National Policy on Education as well as National program on mental Health.
3. National Education policy shall be framed after taking into consideration changed scenario in India, where education is no more restricted to primary, secondary Education but Specialized higher Education 4. shall take Centre Place in formulating New Education policy
5. Education imparted today from Institutes of Higher studies, create highly competitive environment among students which lead to greater Mental stress, therefore measure of Mental health of students are long awaited in Higher Education.
6. Mental Health in India is looked upon from the angel of Mentally challenged people only, this restricted approach need to be widened.
7. Last but not least, teachers shall always keep in mind issue of students Mental Health, while designing mode of imparting instructions to the students.

References:
1. About.com (2006, July 25). What is Mental Health?. Retrieved June 1, 2007, from About.com
2. Princeton University. (Unknown last update). Retrieved June 1, 2007, from Princeton.edu
3. World Health Organization (2005). Promoting Mental Health: Concepts, Emerging evidence, Practice: A report of the World Health Organization, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in collaboration with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and the University of Melbourne. World Health Organization. Geneva.
4. World Health Report 2001 - Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope, World Health Organization, 2001
5. Kitchener, BA & Jorm, AF, 2002, Mental Health First Aide Manual. Centre f.o.r Mental Health Research, Canberra.. p 5
6. Patel, V., Prince, M. (2010). Global mental health - a new global health field comes of age. JAMA, 303, 1976-1977.
7. Johns Hopkins University. (2007). Origins of Mental Health. Retrieved June 1, 2007, from JHSPH.edu
8. Barlow, D.H., Durand, V.M., Steward, S.H. (2009). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach (Second Canadian Edition). Toronto: Nelson. p.16
9. Clifford Beers Clinic. (2006, October 30). About Clifford Beers Clinic. Retrieved June 1, 2007, from CliffordBeers.org
10. Richards, K.C.; Campania, C. Muse-Burke J.L (2010). "Self-care and Well-being in Mental Health Professionals: The Mediating Effects of Self-awareness and Mindfulnes". Journal of Mental Health Counseling 32 (3): 247.

# Ins. By the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002.
# Ins. by the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978, s. 4 (w.e.f. 20-6-1979).
# The sub-heading "Right to Property" omitted by s. 5, Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978 (w.e.f. 20-6-1979).
# Subs. by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, s. 7, for cl. (f) (w.e.f. 3-1-1977).
# Subs. by the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 for "45. Provision for free and compulsory education for children.- The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years."

The  author can be reached at: ravimor@legalserviceindia.com

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