New education policy flayed

The Central government’s draft National Education Policy 2016 will deny opportunity of education to the poor, said speakers at a demonstration organised by the United Christian Organisation and Kumari District Minorities Federation here on Monday.

They said that it was an attempt to subvert equality and secularism of the nation’s pluralistic society.

Representatives of the federation said the Vedic and ‘gurukula’ systems of education, which were being projected as a “model” of the new educational policy, would lead to ‘varnasrama dharma’ and discrimination of students based on caste and religion. Segregation of students as ‘meritorious’ and ‘less meritorious’ and relegation of the ‘less meritorious’ to vocational stream and channelising the ‘meritorious’ to higher education are absurd and not acceptable.

They opposed the proposal to include yoga as a compulsory subject and Sanskrit as ‘third language’ in the curriculum though they were not against the practice of yoga.

Kottar Diocese Bishop and district president of the United Christian Organisations Peter Remigius led the agitation.

Bishop of Thuckalay Diocese George Rajendran and Bishop of Kuzhithurai Jeromdoss Varuvel participated.