Sixteen student organisations, most of them associated with various constituent parties of the Opposition INDIA bloc, will meet here on November 21 at a joint convention to announce a series of protests against the Union government for demanding withdrawal of the National Education Policy (NEP).
The agitations by the student outfits will culminate with a march to the Parliament on January 12 next year marking the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
“Our slogan is Save Education, Reject NEP; Save India, Reject BJP,” said C.V.M.P. Ezhilarasan, leader of the DMK’s students wing and MLA in Tamil Nadu Assembly. He said the united platform will mobilise students against the NEP at all educational institutions, particularly campuses.
Joint protest in Chennai
“Another protest rally will be held in Chennai with the support of students from South Indian States on February 1 [2024],” he said and added that T.N. Assembly had rejected the NEP as it is against the progress achieved by the State in the field of education.
Left-leaning Students Federation of India’s (SFI) general secretary Mayukh Biswas said the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda was selected for the protests to uphold the importance of self-reliance in education. “NEP is killing education. Government schools are getting closed and State and Central universities are finding it tough to function with the Centre going away from supporting education. The sole purpose of NEP is commercialisation and communalisation,” Mr. Biswas claimed.
Congress’s National Students Union of India (NSUI) said it has been mobilising students by organising protests against the NEP since its draft stage. “BJP is privatising education. Students belonging to SC-ST, OBC and other marginalised communities and poor background are finding it difficult to pursue education as they are kept away from the system of education by the BJP. BJP promotes private universities. Schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan have been weakened and we will hold a united protest against the NEP at a national level,” said Nitish Gaur, national secretary of the NSUI.
Charter of demands
Student organisations of Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have also joined the move along with Left-wing organisations such as All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and All India Students’ Association (AISA). The meeting is likely to adopt a seven-point demand charter such as scrapping of NEP, more public funds for education and ending “communalisation” of textbooks and syllabi by the present regime.
Earlier this month, leaders of the 16 organisations had met here to formulate the strategy on the protests. “They [the Centre] not only aim to undermine and dismantle the public education system but also seek to replace it with a communal destructive scheme that fundamentally contradicts the constitutional vision of education. The BJP government has even initiated their attempt to remove the name of the country, INDIA, from the textbooks,” the organisations had said in a joint statement.
