Hundreds of teachers, students and non-teaching employees from across the country gathered at the Capital on Tuesday for a march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar to demand a reversal of the “privatisation policies” of the Central government during its tenure.
The stakeholders marched under the banner of Joint Forum for Movement on Education (JFME) and brought to the attention of the public how in their view, a string of new education policies has led to social exclusion.
The participants accused the Central government of failing to bring about a coherent national education policy and take steps to alleviate the crisis in the public-funded education system. Members from opposition parties like CPI(M), CPI, AAP and other organisations lent their support.
The JFME submitted a list of 26 demands via a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office and said that they would continue to hold demonstrations across the country to spread the message on how the government is slowly privatising education.
The JFME has demanded that Right to Education be extended to cover higher education up to the PG level and that a nation-wide fully state-funded and free common education system from KG to PG be established that included provision for maternal and infant healthcare and nutrition, early childhood care and education and compulsory neighbourhood common school system upto Class XII.
The teachers demanded that the government schools must be strengthened and, the Allahabad High Court judgment (2015), directing that anyone who receives any money in any form from the State treasury, must send their children to state schools be implemented and that preference should be given to government school students in public-funded institutions of higher education and public sector jobs.
Many join protest
Organised by AIFUCTO, DUTA and FEDCUTA, the march has participants from the National-level Secondary School Teachers’ Association and students’ organisations like SFI, AISF, AIDSO, AISA , CYSS and KYS among several others.
Ahead of the rally, the teachers have appealed to students and parents to join the rally to ensure that public-funded higher education in the country is not destroyed.