Terming it as “Hindutva packaging” and “global capitalisation”, a national seminar organised by the All India Save Education Committee (AISEC) at Gujarat Vidyapith Sunday challenged the Draft National Education Policy 2019.
Questioning the haste with which the government came up with the draft National Education Policy 2019, AISEC said that it was “deplorable that the Ministry of Human Resource Development allotted only a few weeks’ time for suggestions on an important document of over 450 pages”.
“The NEP draft policy is stuck on two issues. First is the Hindutva package and second is the globalisation trend. Planning education on the basis of market forces along with forces of narrow nationalism needs to be challenged and we will continue doing that through seminars and discussions,” said Prakash N Shah, AISEC national president.
Issues like three-language policy that would lead to “imposition of Hindi” in the country, the drafting committee that failed to take cognisance of opinions of vast section of teachers, educationists, students, scholars and their organisations, and support to no-detention policy of Right to Education, were raised during the meet in which nearly 250 participants from 14 states participated.
“Similar local, district and state level seminars and conventions would be organised in different states till October-November 2019 across the country. In February or March next year we are planning a protest march to the Parliament,” said Prof Anis Kumar Ray, AISEC national general secretary.
“With Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers at the helm, the proposed Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA) or National Commission on Education (NCE) will control the entire education from primary to university level. The states will have no say on higher education, violating the constitutional provision on education,” he added.
“In the name of Indianisation or Indian tradition, saffronisation and communalisation of education through unscientific and unhistoric topics in the courses and curriculum will be further promoted,” Ray added.
Other points of the draft NEP raised in the meet included introduction of semester system in schools, four-year honours and Bachelor of Education courses and 15-year secondary course, emphasis on distance and online education and denial of autonomy to educational institutions and academic freedom of teachers and educationists.
This story first appeared on indianexpress.com