Shiksha Opinion: Is higher qualification necessary to be a good education minister?

Soon after Smriti Zubin Irani was sworn in as the Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), an avalanche of comments flowed in against her. Congressman Ajay Maken, one of the first to tweet against her said: “What a Cabinet of Modi? HRD Minister (Looking after Education) Smriti Irani is not even a graduate! Look at her affidavit at ECI site pg 11.”

Smriti Irani has stated her last education as “Bachelor of Commerce Part-1, School of Open Learning (Correspondence), University of Delhi-1994.”

Writer Madhu Kishwar tweeted: “Irani claims to b BCom part 1 frm correspondence school. No such degree exists. Means just took admission & left. Misrepresentn in affidavit.”

Which brings us to the question: How important is education for intelligent decision-making?

Now let us take a look at the following personalities:

Guess what’s common for all the above?

Yes, they are all famous. And they all achieved fame irrespective of very little (or nil) educational background. None of the above personalities managed to earn formal education degrees. Tagore, for instance, had no formal education. Yet, he set up Visva-Bharati University, a unique varsity known for its rich cultural heritage.

Politics is one of those rare fields, where performance is not solely based on education but on wisdom, experience and social awareness. So why are we judging Smriti for the lack of college degrees? Let her work speak for itself. As veteran journalist Kanchan Gupta rightly pointed out in his tweet: “HRD Minister does not check exam sheets. She/he ideates with experts what should exams be all about. @smritiirani will be doing that.”

What we do hope is that the new HRD minister focuses more on education reforms and introducing research-oriented education system. We also hope that she eradicates Indian society’s obsession with topper syndrome and initiates experiential learning, rather than opening IITs in every state.