A consultation meeting for seeking opinion on the National Education Policy (NEP) 2016 held at the Department of Analytical and Applied Economics, Utkal University, in partnership with the Centre for Studies in Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP), viewed some prominent proposals of the NEP as anti-poor and against the spirit of the Indian Constitution.
The NEP 2016 is self-restricting in scope as it proposes not to open new institutions for higher education and suggests expansion of the capacity of the existing institutions. It is a clear indication that achieving a target enrollment of 30 per cent in higher education without opening new institutions, can only be achieved through private initiatives, opined the participants.
They further said there exist significant social imbalances and inequalities in higher education. While the current overall GER in higher education is only 23.6 per cent, it is significantly lower at 18.5 per cent for Scheduled Castes and a mere 13.3 per cent for Scheduled Tribes. Given that most of the higher educational facilities are currently confined to urban areas, it is highly unlikely that social gap in access to education will get moderated in coming years with the new approach. The draft NEP 2016 does not highlight the financial responsibility of the implementation of the programmes under the NEP. It might be expected that the financial commitments for the policy be borne by the State Governments out of pocket expenses by the common people which will further restrict the access to higher education and social imbalance, it was observed.
Some suggestions made included specific financial commitments, increase in access by making education less costly, compliances with UGC norms related to maintenance of student-teacher ratio in the educational institutions. The memorandum prepared by students will be submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development for consideration.
Dr Siba Sankar Mohanty, Deputy Director of CSSEIP, initiated the discussion.
Department of Economics head Dr Himanshu Sekhar Rout welcomed the effort.
Notably, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development is currently seeking opinions and suggestions on the policy across the country.
Students and faculty members of the Department of Analytical and Applied Economics, other PG departments, social activists and parents participated.