– Razik Basroor

The National Education Policy 2020(NEP), which was approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July 2020, outlines the vision of India’s new education system. The new policy replaces the previous National Policy on Education, 1986. The policy aims to transform India’s education system by 2040.
In India the first Education Policy was brought in the year 1968 during the time of Indira Gandhi, and after that Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi who later became the PM of India in the year 1984, made some corrections in the Policy and brought a New Policy in the year 1986 replacing Indira Ghandi’s Policy of 1968, and from then (1986) till now India was following the policy brought by Rajiv Gandhi, but now in 2020 the Modi led BJP govt is trying to implement a new NEP(National Education Policy) which now is a matter of controversy.

Various student organisations/movements and the opposition parties are now demanding to boycott the NEP 2020, according to them the Policy violates the democratic and diversified values of Indi, this policy is unconstitutional as it was neither discussed in the parliament nor with the students, adding to this they also says that the NEP is a hidden agenda of the RSS(Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), RSS is a radical hindu hindutva which intends to build the Hindu Rashtra(Hindu Nation) and also the parental organisation of the BJP.

In January 2015, a committee under former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramaniam started the consultation process for the New Education Policy. Based on the committee report, in June 2017, the draft NEP was submitted in 2019 by a panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan. The Draft New Education Policy (NEP) 2019, was later released by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Why the student organisations and the opposition parties oppose this National Education Policy?

The policy mainly focus on:
● Privatising the education institutes.
● Gurukul system (ancient school system).
● Vedic period and history.
● Cluster of the institutions.
● Implementing of foreign languages.
● Online education.
● Removal of the state and regional languages.
● Board and competitive exams for the students of primary school in the name of skill development.

The list may go on…..

Now talking about the National Education Policy 2020.

● The implementation of the NEP 2020 is grossly undemocratic as it does not have the approval of the Parliament.

● NEP 2020 makes no mention of the constitutional provision of reservation for ensuring social justice to the discriminated SC/ST/OBC/PWDs and other disadvantaged sections.

● It deliberately excludes the words secularism and socialism which constitute the legacy of the Freedom Struggle.

● Whereas NEP 2020 speaks nowhere about Urdu, despite it being listed in the VIII Schedule of the Constitution, it seeks to impose Sanskrit, almost like an obsession, at every level of education, including Higher Education.

● NEP 2020 will also lead to massive exclusion of the disadvantaged masses (or Bahujans) from education because it further dilutes the ‘no-detention policy’ of the RTE Act by instituting conventional examinations externally co-ordinated by PARAKH from Class III onwards.

● By linking grants to educational institutions with NAC and output measurement approach, it ensures that only some better performing (elite) institutions will get better funding and majority of already poorly funded institutions will be phased out.

● NEP 2020 is sharply critical of the present regulatory system for being too heavy-handed but ironically, what it provides in its place, through the over-arching Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) and it’s four verticals vise, National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC), National Accreditation Council (NAC), Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) and finally the General Education Council (GEC), far surpasses the current level of centralization of control over Higher Education – financially, conceptually as well as in terms of governance.

These were some of the flaws and brief of National Education Policy 2020.

Here the demand of the students is to boycott the National Education Policy 2020 as it is a high risk to their future and education as well.