Representatives of minority educational institutions staged a protest demonstration against the National Education Policy (NEP), 2019, at the Collectorate here on Monday.
Dubbing NEP as an assault on the independence of educational institutions and as a route to centralisation of power, the protesting members rejected the contested NEP in its entirety. They called for retention of education in the hands of the State government.
According to them, the Rajya Shiksha Ayog, the proposed apex body to possess all the powers to control and monitor the educational institutions, was bound to threaten institutions than to aid them to excellence.
According to the protesters, various proposals of the supra agencies to monitor schools would lead to dysfunction if they worked with prejudice and favouritism.
According to the members, the contributions of the Christian minority was strategically ignored and their experience was not taken into account.
The NEP has treated education as business without taking into consideration the pluralistic nature of Indian society. The educational needs of the people in the fringes of the society - Dalits, Scheduled Tribes, and Transgenders- must be attended to in ways acceptable to them, they said .
The curriculum should be developed as per the need of the locality and teachers must be provided ample freedom to create their own classroom material. Unfortunately, this policy erases such ideas, they alleged.
A similar protest was held in Dharmapuri.
