2.1 Principles
The Indian National Green Party support :
a) a vision of education as a life-long process of intellectual, physical, emotional, ethical and cultural development, taking place in a variety of formal and informal settings, and aimed at empowering people to live purposeful, satisfying lives, to help develop communities that are peaceful, just and ecologically sustainable, and to extend that ethical commitment to the other peoples of the world. Lifelong education can enable all citizens to make a lifelong constructive and creative social contribution;
b) a vision of lifelong education, within which each person may be called on to become a teacher sharing skills, knowledge and insights with others;
c) the right of all people to have access to educational experiences appropriate to their needs, abilities and aspirations, and to adequate financial support while undertaking formal educational programme;
d) the right of all children to an education;
e) the right of all people who are committed to home-schooling to choose to educate their children at home;
f) major programme to create jobs, and the development of a rational approach to workforce planning at the national level, so that all people may participate in socially useful and satisfying forms of work;
g) the maintenance and strengthening of a quality public schooling sector;
h) the right of parents and citizens organisations, community groups and academic and student unions to play a significant role in setting directions, priorities, curricula and the running of the public education system. This will assist the development of an education system appropriate to a multicultural India, which places more value on a sense of community and enriching personal relationships than on motives of competition and profit which presently permeate our society; and
i) the important roles played by professional associations, private providers, community groups and business in providing educational opportunities.
Recognising that in a technological society, empowerment of the individual relies on his/her ability to effectively use communication technology and information systems, the Indian National Green Party will support education policies to enhance the opportunity for all Indians to become scientifically and technologically literate.
2.2 Goals
2.2.1 General
The Indian National Green Party will work to:
a) provide a quality public education system with guaranteed access for all;
b) develop a national work-force planning capacity based on sound research, and reflecting national industry and employment objectives which are built on the fundamental principles of social justice, sustainability and increasing national self-reliance;
c) develop lifelong education and training options which enable people to change occupations as they mature and grow older;
d) provide additional incentives and provision for a continuous cycle of in-service training for teachers at all levels of education, including tertiary teaching;
e) develop the associationist principle, leading over time to a diminution in the role, authority and scale of centralised educational bureaucracies, and an increased level of democratic and responsible community involvement and authority in setting the educational objectives and curriculum content of our schools; and
f) increase emphasis in education on such aspects as:
lunderstanding human relationships and psychological processes,
l physical and emotional health and well-being,
dignity and self esteem,
l the development of an ethical commitment and of caring attitudes to other people and to the planet,
l the importance of cooperation and social benefit rather than competition and profits as social goals,
l a sense of responsibility for the well-being of future generations, and
l adaptability and flexibility.
2.2.2 Tertiary Schooling
The Indian National Green Party will work to:
a) implement a policy of free tertiary education;
b) extend access to tertiary education through development of more decentralised campuses, through the use of distance delivery modes and through open access programmes;
c) conduct environmental audits and environmental development plans in all tertiary institutions; and
d) encourage all tertiary institutions to include environmental programmes among their courses.
2.2.3 Primary and Secondary Schooling
The Indian National Green Party will work to:
a) review the current National Statements in the key learning areas to ensure that:
l there is a balanced concern in school curricula for all dimensions of human development - intellectual, physical, emotional, ethical and cultural;
l there is a balance between such emphases as personal development, intellectual understanding, technical and technological competence, vocational skills and learning for democratic citizenship;
l critical perspectives and processes are integral to all areas of the curriculum in schools;
l there is emphasis on global interdependence;
l all curriculum areas reflect a commitment to the development of a more peaceful, just, democratic and ecologically sustainable world for all people; and
b) increase democratic participation in the decision-making processes within schools and within home-based and community-based educational settings;
c) guarantee the right of all children to education which promotes freedom of thought;
d) guarantee the right of parents to choose to educate their children at home or in other settings without being bound by compulsory registration, provided they can demonstrate a commitment to ensuring a balanced education for their children; and
e) encourage the development of local, community-based and democratically controlled public schools, through provision of capital and recurrent funding to such schools on a demonstrated needs basis, provided those schools reflect the principles of the national education policy.
2.2.4 Ethical Commitment to Other Peoples of the World
The Indian National Green Party will work to:
a) extend the funding available through international organisation for educational projects aimed at enhancing international cooperation and understanding, and at promoting social justice and sustainability within communities and countries overseas through the unconditional funding of projects devised by and for the people of those communities and countries;
b) ensure that educational links with other societies, through such appropriate development means as training schemes, exchanges, admission of overseas students, development projects and consultancies, are characterised by justice, equity and cultural sensitivity;
c) develop educational material and methods for future-vision building; and
d) provide increased financial support for the activities of Development Education Centres.
2.3 Short Term Targets
2.3.1 General
The Indian National Green Party will work to:
a) allocate increased resources to all levels of formal education, but with particular attention to supporting the renovation of the primary sector;
b) extend Open Learning opportunities so that people of various ages in all locations may have access to quality educational programmes of formal and informal study;
c) retain appropriate centralised conditions of employment for teachers, including the principle of tenure;
d) extend funding and other support to community groups, non-government organisations, business, private providers and others offering appropriate community education programmes and facilities, including those catering for interest areas and segments of the population not catered for by conventional and formal educational provision;
e) provide additional funding for students who are physically and/or intellectually disabled, or who are disadvantaged by location and/or distance.
2.3.2 Tertiary Schooling
The Indian National Green Party will:
a) work to increase democratic participation in the decision-making processes within tertiary institutions;
b) allow the collection of fees from students for amenities and services, provided any fees collected are under the democratic control of the student body.
2.3.3 Primary and Secondary Schooling
The Indian National Green Party will support a review of the Profiles developed in each area of the National Curriculum to ensure that they reflect the intentions of the National Statements, are supportive of sound educational principles, and are not used to promote an unwarranted technical, vocationally-driven notion of educational attainment.
2.3.4 People Requiring Special Consideration
The Indian National Green Party consider that the following groups of people should receive special consideration:
l people in remote areas; and
l people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Indian National Green Party will work to:
a) raise awareness within the community of the educational needs of these special groups;
b) guarantee equity of access and participation in appropriate curricula;
c) establish and maintain conducive educational environments;
d) guarantee equitable resource allocation;
e) provide specialist support services; and
f) actively encourage such specialists to take up teaching and other positions within educational institutions.
2.3.5 Education for Sustainability
The Indian National Green Party will work to:
a) develop a national strategy for environmental education which addresses the complete range of environmental education in the formal and informal education sectors, with some emphasis on locally based action;
b) encourage Indian industry to ensure that its vocational practices are environmentally sound, and that vocational training (and other education) are to world best practice standards and to the best available environmental standards (which may be in advance of existing world best practice); and
c) provide support for schools which develop organisational practices to minimise their environmental impacts (for example, energy use), and ensure that maintenance and refurbishment of infrastructure is environmentally sound.

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