Over 3,000 students from various college, universities and other educatio9nal institutions across the State participated in a digital protest against the Centre’s New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 here on Tuesday under the aegis of the All India Students' Federation (AISF) Odisha State Committee.
The students took the route of social media like Facebook, Twitters, WhatsApp, Instagram and email to air their views on the present form of education system and digitalisation of classroom.
The future of the country is blocked by the mismanagement of Covid pandemic. The indiscriminate imposition on lockdown and shutdown measurers has robbed many of their regular jobs and millions of unorganised workers have lost daily wage works. The country’s economy is in a shambles. “For the first time in the country’s history, educational institutions are under closure for quit 15 months. Digital education is only for the privileged class. Over 70% of students of underprivileged sections have no laptop, computer or android phone. How can they get online classes,” questioned AISF State president Sanghamitra Jena.
Jena said the AISF State Committee has launched a campaign demanding withdrawal of blended teaching recommended by the UGC, under which the students of higher educational institutions will be forced to follow 40% online education and it may go up to 70% later. There is no systematic facility of digital library; then how else underprivileged children would get proper education!The organisation has demanded that every student be provided with laptop and cash transfer to the account of each student for data usage. All the fees, including that for examinations, must be exempted for the upcoming academic year 2021-22 as well as previous year 2020-21.
The Government must ensure e-library, school and college libraries with Covid protocols, universal vaccination against Covid and a specific TV channel for education like the one launched by the Kerala Government.