The Union Government’s rhetoric on ‘Make in India” and ‘Skill India’, will remain on paper unless the government doesn't accord enough importance to the education sector. While, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is busy working on these slogans, the budgetary allocation for primary and higher education by its government has been cut massively.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is directing the central educational boards to make structural changes in the higher education. Students’ and teachers’ community alleges that this move was a planned agenda in line with the WTO guidelines and saffronisation push by the RSS. To discuss these issues, Newsclick interviewed Lalita Ramdas, one of the founding members of Greenpeace India.
Mrs Ramdas said, India is already at the lower rank in terms of expenditure in education sector in the world. “Students are the future citizens. Making them creative and allowing them to critically analyse is very essential. The idea of discussions and debates has to be extended from the universities like JNU and HCU to the schools. But the government is not in favour as the right-wing forces are against critical thinking. She criticised the mainstream media’s failure in spreading real information and proper knowledge.