Srinagar, Jun 26: A team of National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) of India Wednesday joined hands with the Private Schools’ Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) to pick holes in the new National Education Policy.
Addressing a press conference here, NISA said it discussed the situation with eminent educationists, academicians and stakeholders in the state who also agreed that “if the policy is implemented in toto in the country, it will lead to the destruction of the vibrant education sector, Jammu and Kashmir being no exception.”
Addressing media here, NISA president Dr Kulbubshan Sharma, flanked by educationist Thomas Antony, and G N Var, chairman PSAJK said that the National Education Policy (NEP) is a voluminous document aimed to confuse a common person.
An ideal policy document, he said should be around 20–30 pages so that it is easily understood by common people and experts alike, but the NEP is a huge 498-page document which is more of a discussion than a concrete policy.
“The document has many pages which have been copy-pasted from a website in Gujarat. But education is unique to every place and one cannot brush everyone in the same colour. Education has unique requirements everywhere. Instead of being personalised, the education sector is being centralized,” Sharma said.
A statement distributed during the presser said “the policy says that the education sector will have Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog (RSA), which will be headed by Prime Minister. Then what is the role of MHRD or education department? It is equal to destroying the entire educational governance infrastructure all over India. They should define the role of other institutions if everything will be controlled by PM headed RSA.”
It said crucial issues of gender, caste and the environment have not been sufficiently addressed in the policy draft.
“Human rights and constitutional rights issues are grossly excluded and Sanskrit and Yoga are projected beyond all reasonable proportions right from school education. As per the draft, Hindu religious dogmas and Varnasramadharma should be injected into young minds in the guise of moral education in schools,” the statement said.
“The policy stresses skills for 80 percent students and quality education for chosen few. It seems the main aim is to make 80 percent students as bonded employees of the capitalist world while as 20 percent will have edge over them. The NEP destroys the concept of equality and it is anti-poor,” the statement alleged.
“It advocates Vedic Gurukula system of education which is teacher-centric with the aim of infusing rigorous discipline among students. This system mars the creativity of children and it is also against the modern and democratic de-centered approaches to pedagogy and contemporary educational practice,” it said.
The statement also claimed that the committee which drafted the New Education Policy did not have a single school teacher in it.
“One is unable to understand the reasons and explanation for it if there can indeed be any. There are nearly 80 lakh teachers in India and they remain the most important unit of effecting changes proposed in the policy. Without their involvement and considerable say in the making of the New Education Policy, it remains to be seen as to how the teaching community responds to it. Not one school teacher can be found in the list of 217 eminent persons the committee consulted,” said the statement.
