New edu policy introduced without consulting stakeholders: National Coalition for Education

Chennai: With the government introducing a new education policy recently without consulting stakeholders, educationists held a consultation on Tuesday to oppose the policy. They said the policy poses many risks as the existing RTE Act, introduced in 2009, has not been implemented effectively.

The consultation was organised by the National Coalition for Education and World Vision India along with the PG department of Development Management of Madras school of social work.

Rama Kant Rai, convener of the coalition, said that before putting the new education policy in the website, the Government should have consulted the stakeholders such as teachers' federation, students' association and the media or civil society. "

It was believed that after the implementation of RTE Act, enrolment of girls would increase. But unfortunately it has decreased," he said. P.Joseph Victor Raj, national convener, Campaign against child labour, said that in the national education policy there was no preamble explaining the pros and cons of the policy. The Government treated schools as industry, he said.

Reni Jacob, advocacy director of World vision India, said the BJP government had promised allocation of six per cent of GDP for education, but it was still only around 3.6 per cent. The new education policy should emphasise on quality in education in basic life skills," he said.