Hundreds of students under the leadership of the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) on Friday staged a dharna in front of the Raj Bhavan here demanding immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the Union HRD Ministry to amend the Tight to Education (RTE) Act and reintroduce the pass-fail system up to Class-VIII in schools and reintroduction of the manual system in admission process of colleges making e-admission optional.
The AIDSO also demanded security of girl students and women in general, ban on obscenities in the media, websites, films, etc, formation of anti-eve teasing committees and giving self-defence training in institutions.
The AIDSO urged the Government to stop fee hike and provide sufficient grants to institutions at all levels and bring down fees within the reach of common students, withdraw the policy of commercialisation, privatisation, public-private partnership (PPP) and FDI in education, fill up all vacancies of teaching and non-teaching staff in all Government and aided institutions on a regular basis, improve infrastructural facilities by providing more grants, withdraw CCE, gradation system, semester, trimester, internal assessment and interdisciplinary course credit system, take stringent measures to curb corruption in the education sector and end all problems in the BSE with respect to rechecking of answer sheets, supply of text books to schools, etc.
A meeting was held at the dharna spot under the chairmanship of AIDSO State president Akshay Das. Among others, State vice-presidents Subash Nayak and Ganesh Tripathy, secretary Shibasis Praharaj, secretariat members Siddharth Rath, Somanath Behera, Babi Balabantaray, Krishna Sahu, Khageswar Mohanta, Kartik Mohanta and Nasim Sarkar addressed the meeting.
A memorandum comprising the demands was submitted to the Prime Minister through the State Governor. An AIDSO delegation also submitted a memorandum to the Higher Education Minister.