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Members of the All India Forum on Right to Education (AIFRTE) appealed to all fraternal organisations and other civil society groups to protest the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. They have called for a nationwide protest from August 10 to August 12, 2021.
“This unconstitutional policy is against the interests and constitutional rights of [Dalits, Adivasis, disabled, LGBTQIA+, women]. The protest could be in virtual or physical modes. The plan is to also jointly share updates and images of physical protests on social media at the all-India level,” said AIFRTE Organising Secretary Vikas Gupta.
Many experts and social activists have voiced their concerns about the NEP 2020. On November 26, 2020, AIFRTE talked about how the policy views education only as a means of indoctrinating children and youth to fall in line with the government’s agenda of preparing a work-force for low-pay jobs and corporate requirements. Educational activist Firoz Ahmed from Delhi said it complicates affirmative action by talking about ‘merit’ rather than ‘integration’ and ‘scholarships.’ Further, professors pointed out that online education without the proper infrastructure for students will exclude women from education. Similarly, in January 2020, experts John Dayal and Sunny Jacob SJ spoke about how the then draft caused a near explosion in Tamil Nadu regarding how the policy focussed needlessly on English, Hindi and Sanskrit.
At the virtual level, the AIFRTE appealed for the use of the common hashtag #NEPQuitIndia on all social media platforms for all kinds of posts. Every day between Tuesday and Thursday members will organise a Twitter storm at 7 PM. According to Chairperson Jagmohan Singh, the AIFRTE has prepared a list of issues that can be highlighted during the campaign but encouraged organisations to create their own lists in non-English and non-Hindi languages as well. Members will also draft an open letter to address the public and government officials like the President, Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, Education Ministers, BEOs, Governor, Tehsildar, District Collector.
Along with the letter, the AIFRTE will release a set of main posters in Hindi and English. However, it requested each organisation to make at least one poster for the common campaign in the name of AIFRTE.
“We request all the participant organisations to raise their voice against the NEP 2020 in as creative and as different ways as possible to have maximum reach. Songs, slogans, memes, news articles, small video clippings and other forms of content should be made use of. We request the participant organisations of this campaign to tag AIFRTE. Ensure that at least 10 posts are released and at least 20 posts of other organizations and AIFRTE are shared on all three days,” said Singh.
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