Congress leader and AICC spokesperson Dr Ajoy Kumar on Sunday lamented that the Modi Government's education system in the country has failed to achieve its objective. He contended that the Union HRD Ministry was perpetuating saffronisation agenda detected by the RSS and that is why, the education system is off the track.
"The Modi Government lays stress on maximum publicity with zero governance. The BJP's DNA is not transparent, as the party is against democracy. Modi has been BJP's single window, while the party is yet to relieve it from the RSS clutch. The combination of Union Minister Smriti Irani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is dangerous," Dr Ajoy Kumar lambasted while addressing a Press conference here.
He tried to underscore his point as to how the education system has stooped low by referring to an observation of the Supreme Court, "It is unfortunate that today education instead of reforming the human behaviour appears to have failed to achieve its objective. Instead we find troubled atmosphere in the society at large, which calls for immediate reformation with the efforts of one and all."
Dr Ajoy Kumar also criticised the Modi Sarkar for slashing budgetary allocation in different education schemes. "The overall education budget is down from `82,771 crore to `69,074 crore. Whereas under the UPA, the plan allocation went up by 18 per cent in 2012-13 and by 8.03 per cent in 2013-14, the BJP Government has reduced the plan allocation for 2015-16 by 24.68 per cent. The savage cuts go across
the board. The flagship Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been reduced by 22.14 per cent, funding for the Mid-Day Meal scheme by 16.41 per cent, the Rashtriya Madhyama Shiksha Abhiyan for secondary education by 28.7 per cent and the Rashtriya Uchhattar Shiksha Abhiyan to support State colleges by 48 per cent," he said.
He cited an example that the SSA, which funds schools across the country, for which the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development had asked for `50,000 crore in 2015-16, it received `22,000 crore.
"The reduced allocations do not match the 12th Plan objectives regarding expansion, growth, access, or quality of higher education. The 12th Plan approach paper had proposed that 18 per cent of all Government education spending or 1.12 per cent of GDP should be on higher education and Parliament's Standing Committee on HRD recommended raising it to 25 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. Instead, this Government is going in the opposite direction," he lamented.