WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO PEOPLEOF INDIA IF WE DO NOT STOP IMPLEMENTATION OF NEP 2020?

The NEP 2020 has to be examined on the touchstone of Constitutional Values deriving from the anti-colonial and anti-caste struggle of the people Of India. The Constitution is not merely a legal document, but a social-Political and philosophical document that strives to end the hierarchical and unjust traditional order based on caste and patriarchy and usher a modern society based on freedom, justice and equality. The constitution also mandates the state not only to provide fair and just governance while

Observing the Constitutional morality as a defining principle, but expects the state through policy intervention to transform the hierarchical, unequal and unjust hegemonic structures of dominance by continuously reducing all forms of inequalities- social, political and economic. The NEP 2020 fails on every count of the constitutional values as we know them. Its dangerous impact of the people of India can be summed up as follows – 

1. 1. The children and youth of oppressed and disadvantaged sections will be pushed out of the education system,

-by pushing students from disadvantaged background to vocational training right from the elementary education stage itself

– by establishing dual standards of academic courses and examinations

– by establishing multiple exit points in higher education courses

– by weakening the public educational institutions through under-funding 

– by giving a free hand to profit-making entities to extort money from students leading to increased student loans and unbridled commercialisation of education right from pre-school stage to higher education.

2. All the gains of the reservation policy in admissions and appointment of faculty will be obliterated and education will become the monopoly of savarna castes and moneyed classes

• By replacing reservation in admissions and appointments with so-called ‘merit’ and other vague qualities like commitment, leadership etc; and
• By eulogising ‘merit’ without any reference to the unequal and hierarchical socio-cultural processes that have made ‘merit’ a monopoly of the savarna castes through generations.

3. Any possibility of transformative potential in education will be annihilated and replaced by reactionary indoctrination of Brahmanical and status quoits values suitable to culturally regressive agenda and corporate requirements

• By establishing complete control of the central government over the structure, processes and curriculum right from the ECCE stage to higher education leading to complete ideological takeover of the education system by the RSS and its sympathisers;
• by recruitment of RSS cadres at every level of education;
• by promoting a narrow view of education as numeracy and literacy;
• by reducing education and its knowledge content to skills, philosophically, pedagogically and programmatically, wherein skills would be imparted as per the socio-economic status of the children and youth, based upon class, caste, race, gender, linguistic background, birthplace and ‘normal body’, thereby reinforcing and widening the present gulf between low-wage labour (unorganized sector) and high-wage labour (organized Sector);
• By paving the way of complete ouster of diverse languages of the people and entrenching the dominance of English, Sanskrit and sanskritised versions of the regional languages;
• By subverting the content and structure of education to the requirements of domestic and international corporate houses instead of the needs and aspirations of the peoples of India; and
• By eliminating any scope of critical thought and inquiry on part of the students or the teachers through extreme centralization and control of every aspect of education right from the stage of early childhood onwards.

4. Federalism in education will be ended and the rights of states/UTs under Article 246 (Seventh Schedule) to determine educational structure, processes, courses and content, evaluation and assessment parameters, teacher recruitment will be undermined

• By establishment of a plethora of central bodies like Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC), National Accreditation Council (NAC), Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC), General Education Council (GEC), National Research Foundation (NRF), National Testing Agency (NTA), etc that will control governance, curriculum, standards, research, finance and overall structure of the higher educational institutions; and
• By imposing centrally made textbooks and curriculum from pre-school to Class XII as well as higher education level on the states.

5. Any possibility of democratic space for students, teachers and karmcharis in universities will be completely thwarted

• By creation of Board of Governors that will have control over all aspects of the university without any democratic representation of the university community
• By ending reservation in appointments and promotion and introducing ‘tenure track system’, the teachers will be exploited and arm-twisted to kowtow by the authorities. This will thwart the possibility of any kind of teacher activism in the campus.

6. The historical traditions and knowledge of tribal and other marginalised communities will be permanently pushed out of the education system

• By pushing a monolithic conception of history that privileges the savarna worldview, the NEP 2020 will lead to complete ouster of even the possibility of preserving and developing the diverse and rich traditions of knowledge, resistance, culture and language of the tribal societies and other marginalised and oppressed communities.

7. The public-funded education system would be destroyed

8. By converting state-funded schools, colleges and universities into private institutions (including FDI-supported) which would have full freedom to increase fees and exploit the students and teachers, provided they declare the quantum and manner of their ‘loot’ on the required website;

• By incremental transfer of public funds to the so-called ‘philanthropic’ Institutions (PPP), thereby resulting in massive closure of state-funded Institutions; and
• By total sell-out of India’s education system to the forces of international finance capital, represented by IMF, World Bank, WTO-GATS and marketing agencies, with a view to allow market fundamentalism to take control of knowledge transaction and production to sum up, the imposition of the NEP on the people of India will lead to the destruction of the diverse social, ethnic, religious and linguistic communities and their respective traditions, cultures, knowledge’s and world-views by a hegemonic, oppressive and monolithic Hindu Rashtra based on Brahmanical values. It will turn the people into slaves of corporate capital. It will lead to destruction of democracy, reinforcement of Status quo, further feudalization of social relations and complete re-colonization of the economy. All the gains of the great anti-caste and anti-colonial freedom struggle will be obliterated. Instead of an enlightened humane society, we will become a mass of regimented mob ready to carry orders of Brahmanical Hindutva fanatics and corporate bosses.

AIFRTE calls upon all sections of the struggling people, organisations and groups to unite at this critical juncture of history when we need to fight for the very space to struggle for our distinct and diverse visions, politics and strategies of emancipation. 

Anil Sadgopal

AIFRTE