Several student groups under the banner of All India Forum for Right to Education staged a protest outside the Ministry of Education building on Thursday, demanding reopening of all educational institutions. They said their prolonged closure has led to disruption in the education system.
The protesters said that despite governments opening markets, malls, bars, hotels and cinemas, no steps have been taken to ensure that educational institutions are opened with sufficient health checks in place to assure students, parents and teachers of their safety.
“The tragic consequence of this unnecessary closure is that lakhs of school and college students have simply had to drop out of educational institutions. A large number of them have had to join the labour force in lowly paid jobs in an extremely hostile employment situation with unemployment at its highest in more than 45 years,” the students said.
They added that that Union and State Governments are concerned about how exams are going to be held and not about how the academic activities of the students are going to be restored.
The students also protested the recommendations of a government-appointed panel that has suggested doing away with the non-NET (National Eligibility Test) fellowship offered to research students at Central universities.
“The entire structure of NET exam is terribly flawed. It is an exam for research scholars and those who want to teach in colleges/universities, but it is based totally on objective multiple type questions. That is why we see very good research scholars not being able to clear the NET exam because of its bizarre structure,” the All India Students’ Association said.