The All India Forum for Right To Education (AIFRTE) organised a meeting in New Delhi on November 11, 2021, demanding the repeal of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. It also demanded that students from all socio-economic backgrounds be provided the same quality of education. The public meeting which saw participation from students, parents and teachers, as well as organisations working in the field of education, was held at Jantar Mantar.

The AIFRTE and participant organisations like the AISA, Disha Foundation, AIRSO, AMSU, KYS, DYFI and SFI among others submitted resolutions on higher education to Education Ministries of union and state governments. Members also demanded the reopening of schools and colleges.

Speaking against the NEP 2020, AIFRTE Organising Secretary Dr Vikas Gupta said the new policy implements an RSS agenda of communalisation of education and opposes the secular framework of the Constitution. “It is totally against the students, especially those who are Dalits, Adivasis, religious and linguistic minorities, disabled and LQBTQIA+. This policy aggravates the caste-based and communal divide in education,” he said.

Similarly, other participants spoke about how the policy turns education into another ‘sector for financial investment’ for profit generation. In other words, experts worried that the policy will allow only those people with money to access quality education.

All India Revolutionary Students Organisation (AIRSO) student Niranjan said, “The NEP 2020 is a neo-colonial assault on Indian education. It converts education from the status of a right to a commodity.” According to the AIFRTE, the policy puts undue focus on an imagined and historically fallacious idea of the “golden period” and snubs logical and egalitarian thinking. Further, there are concerns that the division between vocational and formal education will widen the caste divide.

One of the pointed criticisms of the NEP 2020 is in its omission of the constitutionally mandated reservation policy. It also does not mention the 200-point roster system. The AIFRTE argued that issues of social justice are sacrificed in the name of ‘merit’ thereby further marginalising the historically oppressed groups and communities. Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) student Dinesh said, “The casteist essence of NEP 2020 is against the needs of the Dalits and tribals. The government wants the Brahmanical prejudices to overhaul the right to Education of them.”

Similarly, BSCEM student Sangeeta said, “Education has been extensively vocationalised so that the lower caste students would remain in their own traditional caste-based jobs.”

Concerned students and teachers said the education policy is another tool for the BJP government to centralise its power and follow the mandates of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in establishing the single window system. In doing so, it violates the federal rights of states on educational decisions, a subject included in the concurrent list, ensures privatisation of higher education and promotes the communal and casteist idea of Hindu Rashtra, said the AIFRTE.

Reinforcing these claims various students voiced their solidarity with the Forum. Pachhas student organisation member Priyanka also spoke about the added impact of online education in the last two years, “Online education has totally deprived poor students of slums from fair education. We have to go to the common people and convey how NEP2020 destroys our right to education.”

Towards the conclusion of the event Gupta spoke about a national-level AIFRTE campaign on December 24 to protest the exclusionary provisions of the NEP 2020.

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The post Students, teachers demand repeal of NEP 2020 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On November 26, the  All India Forum for Right To Education (AIFRTE) organised a webinar titled  ‘Reclaim Social Justice Day’ where its member denounced the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and demand the for immediate release of Prof. Anand Teltumbde and other intellectuals arrested on trumped-up charges. 

During the event, AIFRTE organising Secretary Vikas Gupta read a resolution that denounced the NEP for its impact on social justice.

“NEP 2020 is a policy which demands to be rejected because it sees education only as a means of indoctrinating the mass of children and youth to fall in line with the government’s agenda of preparing a work-force that will labour in the low-paid jobs market and satisfy corporate requirements,” said the resolution.

The complete resolution can be viewed below:

Gupta said that the notion of social justice is enshrined in the Indian Constitution. However, over the last six years, there is increasing intention to demolish the constitutional values by demolishing the public sector of health, food, employment.

“To tackle this, the AIFRTE began organising state-level meetings to start a nation-wide centralised campaign for the protection of such constitutional values. The organisation will finalise a calendar from November 26 to December 26 that will list campaign days,” he said.

Similarly, AIFRTE Presidium Member Professor G. Hargopal read another resolution that demanded the immediate release of intellectuals and activists arrested for Bhima-Koregaon violence. Remembering Anand Teltumbde as an important member of the AIFRTE, he said the arrest of one of India’s best analysts shows the current state of an individual’s fundamental rights.

He also talked about the role of the NEP 2020 after considering laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA.)

“The NEP comes at a critical point in time. Education and knowledge raise critical questions. The government wants to stifle voices of university students and teachers. JNU has become a test case. Soon, this will happen to all universities. The AIFRTE is intervening to reclaim the purpose of education, reclaiming production of knowledge because knowledge has to help people in realising their rights and justice,” he said.

Over the course of the webinar, many artists and professionals in the field of education talked about their concerns regarding the current government and its educational policies.

Member of Maharashtra’s Insaaniyat Ki Pathshala Lokshahir Sambhaji Bhagat said, “You very well know who has changed the NEP. Their nature, their personality, you know that. This government is clearly a fascist government. They want to uplift brahmanvad and other uppercaste-mentalities. They are willing to allow the corporate to usurp this country. The government cannot bring about democratic changes because of their Brahmanical nature,” before singing the song to indicate the devious nature of the central government.

Later, former Chairperson of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women Prof. V. Vasanthi Devi talked about caste and Tamil Nadu in the context of the NEP. She said that the policy threatens Ambedkar’s vision of caste.

“Upper class soc is trying to build a single Hindu majority while marginalising religious minorities particularly Muslim.  Dalits are treated as less than humans, tribals are looted. Education has fully come into the market. The underprivileged have no scope of buying the product from these exorbitant markets,” said Vasanthi Devi.

She pointed out that Tamil Nadu stood as the biggest challenge towards the realization of a Hindu rashtravad since it has the highest level of reservation in higher education.

Nation Convener of the Safai Karamchari Andolan Bezwada Wilson also warned that the NEP along with recent new economic policies worked to strengthen an anti-minority environment that only caters to corporate companies.

“We can’t say that policies and politics are separate. Sanitation workers’ children are becoming available as cheap manual labour because they can’t afford to go to colleges. Children were forced to engage in online education. How will a large number of children who do not have a smartphone avail education?” he said.

To illustrate his point, he talked about the LSR student who died by suicide because she could not afford to pay her fees or keep up with online education due to a lack of amenities such as a laptop.

“Minority children can change their social status only through education. But now this manusmriti attitude is making clear that we will be restricted to menial jobs,” he said.

Building on this concern of a lack of proper educational facilities, member of Jan Jagaran Abhiyan Madhusudan Sethy from Odisha said that the government should introduce a system of accountability that makes education available to all. Further, the government should also employ more teachers and build roads leading to schools. Yet schools continue to close down in the state.

“Education should consider the entire population of India. Considering that, understand the disparity wherein a farmer’s child gets a different education from a politician’s child. The NEP that only talks about privatization will lead to destruction,” he said.

Sethy also said that he witnessed six protests in Odisha on Thursday that demanded the withdrawal of NEP 2020.

Madhya Pradesh’s Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan Madhuri pointed out the current formal education system compels Adivasis to abandon their traditional manners to become more like urban folk.

“When an Adivasi child enters educational premises, the first thing they learn is that their own community is uneducated and superstitious. The educated people encourage Adivasi children to abandon their traditional ways and become like urban people,” she said.

Near identical sentiments were voiced by former Vice President of Naga Student Federation K. Elu Ndang who talked about the exclusion of North-East people from the education system.

He pointed out that India has no idea about its topography or about northeast culture. Many Northeast states lag in the field of transport, communication and internet connectivity. He questions how online education would develop in such situations.

“Till today India fails to refer to Northeast states for any decisions and thus fails in overall development. We are not considered an integral part or equal partner of this country,” said Ndang referring to the lack of Northeast representation in the national curriculum.

Another educational activist Firoz Ahmed from Delhi associated with the Lok Shikshak Manch talked about how the NEP 2020 would complicate the already precarious process of affirmative action in Muslim communities.

“The NEP uses the word ‘merit’ many times but it does not talk about integration and scholarships,” he said, pointing out that this sharply contrasted results of a recent survey conducted by the organisation that showed most families in Delhi hoped for integrated schools despite the violence in February 2020.

Highlighting yet another flaw in the new policy, the webinar also welcomed a teacher from Lokayat, Chandigarh and a student activist to talk about women’s issues and the lack of their mention in the document.

Amandeep Kaur who has worked as a professor in a university in Amritsar, Punjab warned that the corporatisation of education as stated in the NEP 2020 would only exclude women from the field. During her lectures, she said girls were heavily monitored and berated by their parents for working on their phones for a long period of time.

“Parents would not let girls talk on the phone for long hours thinking they would be talking to boys. We received calls from parents who complained about the long lecture sessions. Many girls were unable to attend classes due to financial constraints,” she said.

Thus, she argued that the idea of online education with a larger reach used an incomplete picture of what is actually happening in society.

Similarly, member of Delhi’s Pinjra Tod organisation Supriya Kumar criticised the new education policy for failing to address the inequalities in society.

“We are fighting the State’s attempts to apply NEP 2020 that will produce a mass of students as cheap labour in society. New liberalism is reshaping brahmanism and patriarchy. Social justice needs to prepare against it,” she said.

She said that this also threatens campus democracy. Public universities serve as a space where larger casteist patriarchal exclusionary state of government can be reproduced. She alluded to the many attacks on JNU students warning that the universities’ insistence that students not go beyond what is taught in classrooms is particularly alarming.

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The post Activists, intellectuals discuss the threat of NEP 2020 on Constitution Day appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Observing Constitution Day on November 26, the All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE), a federal platform of students, teachers, educational right organisations from different states and Union Territories has condemned the arrest of Professor Vidmahe, Dr Gangadhar, Mettu Ravinder and T. Sudarshan of Telangana Save Education Committee (TSEC) for opposing the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

AIFRTE, which observed Constitution Day on November 26 as Reclaiming Social Justice Day, held a large number of programmes to oppose the “dilution of Constitutional framework of social justice and equality” by the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, accusing the “right-wing Brahmanical/ Hindutva and patriarchal forces” of seeking to “destroy the Constitutional guarantees of equality, social justice and measures for affirmative action like reservations and other welfare measures.”

In August, 2020, AIFRTE had also expressed deep anguish and shock over State Governments, especially North East India’s action of invoking Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules to prevent and intimidate teachers from protesting against the new educational policies.

According to the media, the Union Cabinet on November 25, approved the New National Education Policy and renamed the HRD Ministry as the Education Ministry. The AIFRTE along with SEC have been fighting this new policy because they claim that this new plan aims at centralising, corporatising and communalising the entire education system thereby leading to massive exclusion of students from oppressive and poor backgrounds who anyway struggle with accessibility issues.

The National Education Policy, announced, without debate in Indian Parliament and without adequate inclusion of concerns and criticisms sent in by diverse Indian groups has raised several questions of concern, especially with related to access to education for all, democratisation of education, the language formula articulated, diversity concerns and worst of all, the all-out privatisation of higher education. 

SabrangIndia has reported on the salient features of the NEP 2020, which may be read here.

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The post AIFRTE condemns arrest of Save Education Committee members over NEP 2020 appeared first on SabrangIndia.