Questioning ‘impractical’ provisions in the Draft National Education Policy 2019, Association of University Teachers on Saturday apprehended that the document reflected neo-liberalisation, and apathy towards economically backward sections.
Recommendations in the draft document for starting formal education at the age of three years, envisaging 5+3+3+4 format in the place of 10+2 system of school education, and the idea for formation of National Education Commission and State Education Commissions to subsume all regulatory bodies came in for criticism at the AUT’s symposium on DNEP at Bishop Heber College here. The recommendations for creation of multi-disciplinary universities and colleges, the concept of all-India entrance tests for undergraduate admission, and the idea of letting institutions fix their own fee structure were described by speakers as impractical.
Senior AUT functionaries assailed these provisions in the draft document, which, they said, would not only deprive the poor students of affordable education, but also clear the ground for political interference in academic discourse.
By advocating subsumption of all regulatory bodies by an overarching National Education Commission chaired by the Prime Minister, the DNEP was contradicting the common position taken by the Radhakrishnan and Kothari Commissions on education that academics must be separated from political influence, K. Pandiyan, former State president, AUT, said. In the backdrop of the degeneration of political culture in recent decades, the DNEP was not grounded in realities, Mr. Pandiyan said, wondering why the views of teachers and students who, he observed, constitute the main stakeholders were not taken. Mr. Pandiyan expressed fears that the DNEP would pander to market forces and entirely eradicate caste-based reservation system that benefits economically poor students.
Absence of teachers in Dr. Kasturirangan Committee had eroded its very credibility, N. Pasupathy, AUT State president, who presided over the symposium, pointed out. The call for revamp of the higher educational system in the DNEP through categorisation of institutions as research universities, teaching universities and teaching colleges, and mooting of the concept of school complexes with the intent of closing down schools with less student strength were unwarranted, he said.
Inaugurating the symposium, N.S. Raghunathan, former AUT general secretary, and Documentation Committee Member, sought to know how the DNEP could ingore the academic development of children with different kinds of handicaps. The draft document depicted shortcomings in the methodology, he said.
The symposium signified the start of the AUT's effort to prepare a comprehensive document on its view on DNEP in a month's time based on feedback from its members.
