The draft National Education Policy contravenes the Constitution and the federal system, according to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In a letter to the Human Resource Development Minister on Saturday, party general secretary Sitaram Yechury called for the complete withdrawal of the chapter recommending the centralisation of powers in education governance.
The Constitution puts education in the Concurrent List, giving authority and responsibility to both the States and the Centre. However, Mr. Yechury alleged that the draft had robbed the States by creating “an excessively centralised structure of authority” and vesting overarching powers with the PM-led Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA).
“States are expected to function merely as local-level units of the RSA, without having the freedom to establish their own priorities or position themselves critically against the policies of the Centre,” said the letter. “The RSA hierarchy of decision-making is an insult to the federal character of our Constitution and its clearly defined relationship of the States to the Centre... it imposes uniformity and one-size-fits-all solutions on a diversity of learning needs and circumstances that require nuanced policy responses”.
The letter was sent 10 days before the deadline for public feedback on the draft. Mr. Yechury also opposed the “elitist and pro-corporate” thrust of the policy, claiming that it would ensure the “centralisation, commercialisation and communalisation of the Indian education system”. He called for wider consultations before the Policy was finalised.
He observed that the draft policy had set up an ambitious gross enrolment ratio target of 50% by 2035, but hoped that the target would be achieved without binding the Union Government to funding commitments. “As a public policy document, it inexplicably leaves out the basic responsibility of public funding out of its scope relying, instead, on the imagined benevolence and commitment of governments,” said the letter.
By advocating increased private investment and funding of institutional infrastructure through corporate philanthropy, CSR and capital markets as well as shutting-down of large affiliating-type universities, the policy would undermine social equity and democratic access to quality education, said the letter.
Mr. Yechury also slammed the focus on online learning as an alternative to regular classroom interaction between teachers and students, despite some global research questioning its efficacy and viability. “The unsaid agenda in its recommendations on online distance learning seems to be focussed on the twin objectives of cutting costs and increasing enrolment exponentially without having to create adequate physical infrastructure and appoint more teachers,” said the letter.
