TIRUCHY: Senior CPI (M) leader and party general secretary Sitaram Yechury came down heavily on the Union Government’s “National Education Policy-2019” (NEP) and asked what “is the need for this policy”. He made these remarks while addressing the national consultation on NEP organised by the consortium of Christian minority higher educational institutions at Tiruchy on Sunday. He pointed out that instead of NEP, we should have universalisation of education. He said that advanced countries were into universalisation of school education and here only 12 percent of our students were entering higher education after schooling as against the world average of 27 percent.
He said that the NEP gives importance to three Cs - commercialisation, centralisation and communalisation. Although our country has 22 languages, the NEP speaks of only two. Yet another disadvantage of NEP is that there will be no reservation in recruiting teachers and this is a major blow, especially to minorities, he added. Moreover, the NEP was not debated upon by educationists, he said.
Among others, CPI (M) Rajya Sabha member T K Rangarajan, Dr B.Ramaswamy, member, advisory committee, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and Fr Dr G. Pushparaj, founder general secretary of the Consortium, spoke.
Earlier, Mr.Yechury, speaking to the media at the airport here, said that there was no need for the merger of the two communist parties as both were working together on all important issues.
The CPI(M) vehemently opposed the Union government’s move to establish hydrocarbon projects in the Cauvery delta region and would protest in the Lok Sabha, he added.
