Another RSS Agenda on Anvil - The New Education Policy
Syed Ali Mujtaba
Currently, the Fifty-five Page draft is waiting the customary
nod by the cabinet and once that over it will be brought in the Parliament at an
appropriate time and date to make it a law. Needless to say, it is
going to be the repeat of the Citizen Amendment Act and Abrogation of Article
370 and 35 A, and will be summarily passed in the Parliament within no time
caring little about the people will and the future of the generation to come in
the country.
The government of the day is emboldened by the fact that it can
get away with the RSS agenda no matter what may be opposition to it as it is
conceived all such agenda are the will of the county.
These RSS agenda are blatant attempt to change nature and
character of the constitution of India and the government of the day is
convinced that it can handle any opposition to it no matter how many dead
bodies it’s has to count in its saffron pursuit.
Now before being judgmental about the New Education policy, let’s
have a bird’s eye view of its draft and get to its basics correctly. In sum,
the ‘New Education Policy’ is yet another RSS agenda to saffron the
country tempering with the education system of India.
Actually, in June 2019, Dr K Kasturiragan committee had submitted
184 page draft report on new education policy. After that Fifty-five page
report was submitted to the government, supposedly an updated version of the
new education policy in October, 2019.
The fifty-five page report is the new version of the draft of
the new education policy that is currently being vetted by the government.
Even though it is not officially acknowledged by the Ministry of Human
Resource and Development (MHRD), in all probability the new version of the draft
of the education policy satisfies all the intentions of the current government.
And it is this draft that is being considered to be made into a law.
Since the draft of new education policy concerns entire country,
I am listing out some of the concerns that may beg attention of 'we the people
of India’.
The draft of the new education policy lays emphasis on universalization
of early childhood care and education (for 3-6 years age group) in the public
funded domain. The draft of the new education policy recommends recruiting
‘local volunteers, social workers and counselors’ for this “large scale
mission”.
This means the government will recruit people belonging to the
saffron brigade and they will be paid from the public funds for this large scale
mission. This would open the door for the RSS and Sangh Parivar cadre to infiltrate
into the different stages of education system i.e Schools, Colleges and
Universities and if so the RSS agenda is being made operational.
The next criticism of the draft of the new education policy
is that it promotes unfettered commercialization of education system in the country.
It not only allows privately owned schools and colleges to collect fee but is
in line with the dictates of the World Bank, IMF and WTO recommendations that
the government shall not regulate private institutions since they are “not profit
or public spirited bodies.”
As such the draft of the new education policy chooses to ignore
the Kothari Commission’s recommendation of establishing a Common School System
(CSS) based on Neighborhood Schools (NS) up to class XII for all children. The
CSS –NS idea was recommended in successive education policies beginning from
1968, 1986 and 1992 but now it is totally being ignored.
The draft of the new education policy legitimizes a
multilayered school system for different section of the society. It recommends
vocational element in education from class 9 or even earlier. This is a big
camouflage as it gives the students the option to choose between vocational and
liberal education.
The fear is the Bahujan and other down trodden children that
consists of more than 85 per cent of student force will certainly be lured to
vocational courses while the upper caste/class children will continue to go
ahead with the liberal education.
This diversion of the Bahujan and other such children to go for
vocational education is to make them go for low wage earning fields and would lead
to their massive exclusion before class XII. The massive exclusion of the
Bhaujans and other down trodden sections of students especially girls from the
education system are clear from the vision of the new education policy and as
such detrimental for the well being of the country. This new education policy will certainly deny them the right
of equal opportunity to enter higher education and participation in the social
justice agenda of the country.
The new education policy is meant to exacerbate privatization
and corporatization of education system. It aims to make the education system into
low wage earning skills and to fulfill the government’s objectives of “Skill
India” “Make in India” missions. The main objective of the new education policy
is to build a cheap labor force for the capitalists and corporates to
flourish.
The new education
policy is aimed at demolishing the public funded education system in the
country. The draft of the new education policy proposes elitist school
complexes and this would further lead to massive closure/ merger of the public
funded schools. This in turn would further exacerbate exclusion of Bahujan and
others from the education system. This in fact is the agenda of the RSS as it
wants to operationalize the Neo Brahmanical education system in the entire
country.
The draft of the new education policy recommends mother
tongue as a medium of education only up to class FIVE, tolerating it up class
EIGHT, then liquidating the recommendation by adding a clause ‘when possible.’
Further, the new
education policy, seeks to impose Sanskrit at all levels, including higher
education. The draft of the new education policy recommends imposition of Hindi
and Sanskrit on students in non-Hindi speaking states and Sanskrit on students
of Hindi speaking states. The new education policy has little regard for the
mother tongue of the minorities and others whose mother tongue is not Hindi.
The draft of the new education policy recommends that the NCERT
would prepare the course material for the schools and the credit structures for
Colleges and Universities will be prepared by the General Education
Council. As such, the NCERT and the General Education Council will be
controlling the education content of the entire country. This implies that the
state/ UTs and their bodies will have no role in preparing the course material
of the new education system in the country.
Further, the draft of the new education policy extends the role
of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to control education both at school and
higher education. Thus NTA would control the exit gate of school education and
the entry gate of the higher education.
At the same time the new education policy proposes private National
Testing Agency (NTA) and Accreditation procedure to put in place, a multi
layered system of educational institutions. This will be run by so called independent
managements that do not allow any democratic and representative involvement of
teachers, students and staff in the functioning of these institutions.
Next, the draft of the new education policy mandates the National
Research Foundation (NRF) to control the research being undertaken at the higher
education level. It is being feared that this would certainly lead to regimentation
of thoughts and knowledge production.
The draft of the new education policy also takes away the last
shred of autonomy from the education system and promotes the centralization of
eligibility, admission and evaluation criteria, at all levels of education
including higher education.
As such the draft of the new education policy stands against
India’s diversity and other constitutional values. The new education policy
stands for hegemony of majoritarian religion, culture and language. It stands
for building multilayered education system rooted in caste, class, patriarchy
etc. There is nothing positive in the new education policy and it has to be
rejected out rightly.
With all wisdom at our command the new education policy has
to be decoded in public squares, a massive public opinion has to be built
against this harmful education policy. A people’s upsurge against such policy
can alone compel the government to desist from pushing one more of its saffron
agenda into the public domain and enacting it as a constitutional law in the country.
--
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be
contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
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