AIFRTE against New Education Policy (NEP)
AIFRTE RESOLUTION ON NEP 2020
AIFRTE opposes the anti-people New Education Policy 2020 entirely. The policy is intended for the commercialization and corporatization of education thoroughly by encouraging the policy of “ease of doing business” in the field of education by giving a free hand to profit-making private institutions in all areas like fees to be collected from students, salaries to be paid to teachers, infrastructure to be provided, etc. Further, the policy seeks to siphon public funds to private organizations in the name of ‘Public Philanthropy Partnership (PPP)’ to benefit the ruling party outfits.
The policy seeks to communalize education at all levels, from KG to PG, reorient research on communal lines, and bring about regimentation of thought. The 66-page policy document, while stressing ‘fundamental duties’ repeatedly, doesn’t find a place for ‘fundamental rights’. The policy is drafted against cultural and linguistic diversity to impose homogeneity to pave the path for fascism.
The NEP 2020 seeks to centralize and control the administration of education at all levels, from pre-school to research level, through central bodies existing and to be established against the federal rights of the states.
The NEP 2020 stands against social justice and reservations for historically discriminated, oppressed, and marginalized sections.
The policy has a clear agenda for infiltrating and promoting conformist individuals at all levels of education against the rule of reservation, the rule of seniority, and even the required academic credentials to capture the whole education system by ruling forces.
The NEP 2020, in the formulation of which all institutions, including parliament, were bypassed, is a blueprint for all-out fascism and should be discarded and replaced by a new policy developed based on the values enshrined in the Constitution of India.
The council demanded the establishment of a fully state-funded education system from KG to PG, which will be administered through participative democracy in a decentralized way.
The 7th All India Council of AIFRTE calls for a nationwide mass movement to thwart the anti-people NEP 2020 and to achieve an education policy that endeavors to build a humane, secular, democratic, socialist society with a scientific temperament.
DETAILED CRITIQUE OF NEP 2020
Read our detailed, in-depth critique of the New Education Policy 2020 here. Complementary to this, we have also listed 51 reasons to oppose this policy, which you can read in English or Hindi.
WEBINAR SERIES
AIFRTE has organized a series of webinars comprising of lectures from leading experts across the country on the perils of NEP 2020. The lectures dissect NEP from two broad perspectives: (a) critiquing NEP 2020 as a policy and (b) elucidating its detrimental impact on social justice. You can watch the lectures on our YouTube channel. We have curated a select few of them here:
1. “In between the lines of NEP 2020” – by Prof Anil Sadgopal (Former Dean, Department of Education, Delhi University; Presidium Member, AIFRTE; Founding Member, Kishore Bharti).
2. “Critical Appraisal of NEP 2020” – by Prof. Prabhat Patnaik (Professor Emeritus, Center for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University).
3. “Social justice and NEP 2020” – by Prof. Jagmohan Singh (Professor (Retd), Department of Computer Science, Punjab Agricultural University; Presidium Member AIFRTE; General Secretary, Association for Democratic Rights)