Opposing the new education policy (NEP) introduced by the Central Government on grounds that the State was not consulted and the issue was not discussed in Parliament before giving clearance, Bengal Government has formed a six-member committee to ponder over the new scheme and table its own report.
Contradicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that the new education was discussed and debated over the last five years at various levels before being introduced, Bengal Education Minister Partho Chatterjee on Monday said “though the Prime Minister claimed that the new education policy was discussed extensively at various levels neither the issue was discussed in Parliament nor the State Government was taken into confidence ...particularly when education is in concurrent list.”
A number of serious questions have been raised in the aftermath of the central declaration he said, adding “questions are being raised as to why Madhyamik (Class X) board exam has been done away with in the new scheme of things, why Bengal was not represented in the central advisory team that proposed such a sea change in the national education system and why there is such a vehement trend towards centralization in the new system.”
Informing that the State Government had formed its own committee which would discuss the worth of the new system and submit a report, Chatterjee who earlier called the NEP a “copy paste” of the western and American model said the report would then be sent to the Centre.
“We have formed a team of advisors which will review the NEP and submit a report to the State Government which will then consider sending it to the Centre,” Chatterjee said. The report is to be submitted by August 15.
The team comprises Trinamool Congress MP Professor Sougato Roy, Jadavpur University Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das, Rabindrabharati Univeristy Vice Chancellor Sabyasachi Basu Roychowhdury, educationist veteran educationists Pabitra Sarkar and Nrisinghaprasad Bhaduri and State syllabus committee chief Avik Majumdar.
Apart from this the Government will also consult various academic associations like Calcutta University Teachers Association (CUTA), Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) etc. Besides “private individuals and other institutions may also send in their views by August 15,” Chatterjee said.
According to inside reports though the State Government sees central encroachment in the NEP it is willing to gauge the general view as the “BJP Government has very cleverly cloaked dirty fangs of the NEP by some velvety cover like credit banking system etc.
According to a JUTA member “what seems to get lost from the vision amid the hype is the element of dangerous centralization in terms of original research … one wonders whether critical evaluation would be allowed by the National Research Foundation ever.”
In fact the JUTA said “the NEP 2020 seeks to replace the inclusive, democratic, progressive, idea of India by a narrow, sectarian, and bigoted notion, driven by the compulsion to propagate the divisive ideology of a particular political party… It has set back education in India by at least a century.”
A CUTA member said “three Cs have appeared nakedly in the NEP --- they are centralization, commercialization and communalization.” He also wondered whether the Indian universities with their limited infrastructure will be able to compete with their foreign counterparts and “whether any good foreign university worth its salt will ever come to India” and wondering whether “the substandard universities will open shops in this country.