Nueva Delhi: The leader of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, criticized on Monday the National Educational Policy (NEP) 2020, accusing the BJP Union government to use it as a tool for “centralization of powerMarketing and communization “in the education sector.
The former president of the Congress said: “The history of the Government of the Union in the last decade has demonstrated convincingly that in education, it only cares about the successful implementation of three elements of central agenda: the centralization of power with the union government; the commercialization and subcontraction of investments in education to the private sector and the communalization of textbooks, the curriculum and the institutions and institutions.” ”
In an opinion article published in The Hindu News Paper, he said that politics hides the “deep indifference” of the Government to the education of the youth and children of India.
“The centralization without control has been the distinctive seal of the functioning of this government in the last 11 years, but its most harmful consequences have been in the domain of education,” he wrote, claiming that the Government has set aside state governments in key decision -making processes. He pointed out that the Central Advisory Education Board, which includes ministers of the center and states, has not been convened since September 2019.
Sonia Gandhi also claimed that the Government has “forced” state governments to implement the PM-Shri scheme By retaining subsidies for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). “These funds are due to the states for years as part of the financial support required to implement the right of children to the Free and Compulsory Education Law (RTE),” he wrote, added that even the Permanent Parliamentary Committee of Education had requested the unconditional release of the SSA funds.
Criticizing the impact of the NEP on higher education, said the new draft of the guidelines for the University Subsidies Commission (UGC) in 2025, who said that it aimed to reduce the role of state governments in the appointment of vice chains. “The Government of the Union has been delivered, through the governors who are generally designated as the Chancellor of the University, the power close to the monopoly in the selection of the vice -rectors in state universities,” he said, saying it a “serious threat to federalism.”
Gandhi also accused the government of pressing for “privatization without control” of school education. She argued that the NEP Socava the concept of neighborhood schools guaranteed under the RTE Law by promoting the idea of ”school complexes”, which she has led to the closure of almost 90,000 public schools since 2014 while increasing the number of private schools.
He also criticized the change of block subsidies to the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) to finance universities, arguing that it forces institutions to take loans that finally result in higher student rates. “Between 78% and 100% of these loans are being reimbursed by universities through the students’ fees. In other words, the price of the government withdrawal to finance public education has been assumed by students who face increases in tariffs,” he wrote.
On the issue of communalization, he accused the government of “indoctrinating and cultivating hatred through the educational system.” She cited reviews in the NCERT textbooks that eliminated references to the murder and history Mogol of Mahatma Gandhi and criticized the hiring of members of the faculty based on ideological considerations instead of academic merit. “Leadership positions in key institutions … have been reserved for flexible ideologues,” he wrote, warning that the dilution of qualifications for teachers and vice -rectors is part of this agenda.
By requesting the end of what described the “butcher shop” of the Public Education System of India, Gandhi wrote: “During the last decade, our educational systems have systematically cleaned the spirit of the public service, and the educational policy has been disinfected from any concern about access and quality of education.”