The Students Federation of India (SFI) submitted its remarks and suggestions on the Draft New Education Policy to Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Minister of Human Resources Development, at his office in the Parliament on July 29. Rajya Sabha MP Elamaram Kareem joined the SFI delegation to assist with their Draft NEP role.
“We have also cited how specific proposals inside the document are exclusionary for the deprived sections and could harm many states. We demand to prevent implementing the NEP and initiate a larger democratic method of observing and consultation with unique sections within the society, consisting of the student organizations and democratically elected student unions,” stated Mayukh Biswas, General Secretary of the SFI.
Why they do not like NEP
The SFI stated that they’ve known that the “vital democratic processes, constitutional outlooks, and modern method” have been lacking in making the policy draft, which has made it nothing, however, ill-organized. Moreover, they claimed that the term — less than months — given for the general public to look at the 484 page-lengthy (in English) file (and in Hindi, approximately 650 pages) for filing their feedback turned into insufficient. “In truth, the report has not been made to be had in unique nearby languages which itself makes massive participation of human beings impossible,” study a file launched using the student company to explain their stand.
The SFI has recommended six foremost motives why they notion the NEP changed into now not sufficient:
Attack on Federal Character of the usa and Training The NEP proposes to create an “India-focused” schooling system to result in the advent of an “equitable and colorful know-how society.” However, the scholar leaders think that many of the proposed structural modifications contradict the actual sense of this. The NEP does not consist of talented recommendations to gain this, as an alternative is going against the spirit of ‘Indianness’ inside the training area.
“The idea of ‘Indian-Centred’ schooling want now not be completely removed from all different orientations that emerged in overseas lands; as an alternative, it ought to be an amalgamation of the deferral characters, democratic ethos and colorful variety of the country in each component. But the NEP has copied most of the failed neo-liberal experiments from the worldwide studies and closely overlooked the divergent plans and programs the people of India want in line with the unique conditions in their societies,” stated the SFI.
They welcomed the advice of renaming the HRD Ministry because of the Ministry of Education. However, a renaming will cause no innovative change except a concrete plan to ensure the whole gadget’s fruitful functioning. The proposed National Education Commission headed by the Prime Minister will form the complete schooling gadget right into a device inside the fingers of the splendid political management of the usa, they said.
School System
The NEP proposed that self-sufficient school boards will be chargeable for the decentralized control of faculty clusters. This includes teacher appointments, college shape, educational calendar and timetable, curriculum, standards, and tests. At any point, the SFI claimed, this cannot be controlled under one centralized gadget owing to the range in exclusive regions.
“The draft proposes a formal training gadget from the age of 3. This contradicts the globally frequent norm that formal schooling must be after age five. ‘Early youth training and pre-training are most effective in a preparative segment before real schooling. Integrating it with formal education might not convey any positive outcome. Instead, it might reverse the welfare role played by the Anganwadi in the wholesome improvement of kids. The draft ignores the contribution made by the Anganwadi machine in enhancing the health and nutrients of youngsters,” the SFI introduced.
Providing a “go out” point from Class VIII without annoying an entire ban on toddler labor is tricky because the cutting-edge toddler labor laws allow kids to work in “own family” businesses from 10 years onwards, reinforcing both caste-based occupations and monetary exploitation. This may have a large social implication and violation of child rights.
The SFI had applauded the NEP’s notion to provide adequate nutrients to all college students up to Class 12. “This advantageous technique has already been effectively jogging in states like Kerala. But greater readability is wanted on which branch and government may be made responsible. Additionally, the legal mechanism had to be introduced for the obvious functioning of the mid-day meal scheme,” they delivered.
Campus Democracy
The student agency demanded that they had been upset that there isn’t always a single factor, approximately campus democracy and democratic rights of the students, in the complete report of the NEP. “Education has a vital objective of strengthening democratic values and educating the new generation to be capacity members of a democratic society. Therefore, it’s also essential to make certain that scholars and researchers love all democratic rights guaranteed via India’s very constitution. Students and researchers should never be handled as secondary residents inside the educational establishments and should be allowed to perform all democratic activities in surroundings of 0 surveillance,” examine the report. “We call for there ought to be legislation using the Parliament of India to shield the campus democracy and unfastened and truthful elections of students unions in all educational establishments, no matter public or personal,” it brought.
