New Education Policy “contradicts constitutional and social justice ideals”, Mahadevappa writes in letter to PM
(Laiqh A Khan)
Contending that the BJP government’s New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 “contradicts constitutional ideals and social justice principles”, former Minister H.C. Mahadevappa has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding removal of policies that were posing a “threat to idea of India and democratic spirit”.
In a June 30 letter, Mr. Mahadevappa, a Congress leader, said the NEP 2020 is trying to destabilise the existing education system that is based on Constitutional principles and “will try to infuse Manu principles and aim to spread communal hatred.”
While contending that adoption of Sanskrit language to encourage “voice science and pronunciation techniques” is a threat to mother tongue languages and an attempt to undermine Dravidian languages, he described as ‘dangerous’ the “reports of teachers from RSS institutions giving their narrow ideological opinions in the formulation of the new education policy”.
He sought to contrast the NEP 2020 with the previous education policies of 1968, 1986 and 1991. The NEP 2020 has not considered any provisions of the previous oness, he regretted. Due to the initiatives in the earlier education policies, Mr. Mahadevappa claimed the literacy level in the country increased from 28.3 per cent in 1961 to 52.21 per cent in 1991.
“But, the new education policy is intended to affect the unity of our country and undermine the diversity of our vibrant democracy”, he said, claiming that it wants to “infuse BJP’s communal political agenda to the students at a very young age”.
Mr. Mahadevappa said there is no justification for mooting the idea of admitting children to play home or Balavatika before entering primary schools when there is already a system of anganwadis in place. He feared that many students will drop out of graduation courses owing to the recommendation to increase the duration from three years to four years with multiple exit options.