Unfortunate that democratic content of education being eroded: Kanhaiya Kumar

Ludhiana, October 23, 2016: Students in India have to wage relentless struggle to bring about changes in the education system so as to ensure that every child from any strata of society gets quality education right from the primary school level to the advanced level said Kanhaiya Kumar, leader of the All India Students Federation and former President of the Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNU) Students Union while speaking at a seminar on “Challenges of Education: Increasing cost – Reducing Jobs” at Punjabi Bhawan today. The seminar was organised jointly by the Punjabi Sahit Academy and Social Thinkers Forum Ludhiana.
He added ongoing policies of the government have made education costly and out of reach of common man. The quality education right from the primary level to the advanced level has become a dream for the ordinary people. The scientific content and outlook is being taken off from the education system and is being replaced with obscurantist and communal ideas removing the secular and democratic content from the education system. A false notion is being spread through the media that this is being done in the name of promoting Indian culture and traditions.
Adding, he said, with the government completely shedding its responsibility to give education to the people there is rampant entry of private sector including the corporate sector in the field of education. He warned that it was very unfortunate that the democratic content of the education is being eroded and any divergent viewpoint is being labeled as anti national.
Quoting the incidents in JNU and Central University Hyderabad and several other places, he said that there is a subtle move to handover the higher education to the corporate sector and to discourage the students from lower socio economic background from acquiring higher education. The whole concept of patriotism is being changed to suit the Hindutva agenda of the ruling party. Anyone with different idea is being dubbed as anti national and the so called moralists and protagonists of patriotism are being used to hound those whom they label as anti national.
Adding, he said education system is getting totally disconnected from the needs of the masses and based on market system. This has led to reduction in jobs particularly when there is no planning. This has led to unrest among the students and their parents all around the country as they have to suffer on both accounts, one they are fleeced due to costly education, second after studying for long even in the professional institutions they have to face unemployment or under employment.
Prof Tarsem Bahia Chairman Punjab Educationists Forum dwelt at length on the New Education Policy 2016 which will ultimately lead to denial of quality education to the students from low and middle economic background and push the dropout rate in the name of skill development. This policy 2016 outrightly opens the doors to the private sector to run education system in the country with profit motive. This started during the period of Vajpayee government when Birla Ambani committee was formed to plan the education system in the country; none of them is from the education sector. This is total reversal of report of the Kothari commission which had recommended common school system with area school for children and totally free education from beginning to end.
Com Amar Jeet Kaur, National Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress -AITUC in her address cautioned that grave dangers are emanating now with the policies of the government at the center to introduce obscurantist ideas in the education system. Efforts to mix science with mythology are matter of grave concern for our society which is based on the principle of unity in diversity and assimilation of various cultures. Such tendencies are a very serious threat to the harmony in our society and have to be sternly fought back she said.
Quoting the report of Labour Bureau few days back she said that it is a reality that jobs have become less after the governments started to pursue the neo liberal economic policies and subjugation to the foreign multinationals. The report, she said has confirmed that rate of reduction of jobs has become very high in the last two years since Modi led BJP government came into power. She further said that after the structural adjustment programme and complete reversal of economic policies in the late 1980s the concept of education and health as a right of the people has been changed to these sectors as purchasable commodity.
Dr Sukhdev Singh Sirsa, President Punjabi Sahit Academy said that they will enhance the awareness campaign on the issue of education as a fundamental right.
Dr Arun Mitra, convener of the Social Thinkers Forum called upon the people to make education and health as a basic issue during the upcoming elections. He expressed dismay at the statement of the Punjab Education Minister Shri Daljit Singh Cheema that the agitation by the parents of students of the private schools is politically inspired. He should have instead assured the parents to sort out their grievances by forming a regulatory authority.
Dr Surjit Singh, General Secretary of the Academy welcomed the dignitaries.
Prof. Jaswant Zaffar presented his book to Kanahiya Kumar.
Others who contributed in the seminar include Prof. Jagmohan Singh, Dr.Gulzar Singh Pandher, M. S Bhatia, Co-Convener of STF, D P Maur, Prof. A K Maleri, Prof. Gurbhajan Gill, Adv. Naval Chibber – Formber President Ludhiana Bar Association, Com Gurnam SIdhu, Rajinder Pal Singh Aulukh, Sultana Malik, Rina, Deepakl Kumar, Master Feroze, Adv. Narinder Adya, Vijay Kumar, Kuldeep Singh Binder, Dr Gurpreet Rattan, Ramesh Rattan, Kartar Singh Bowani, Inderjit Singh Sodhi, Kusum Lata, Jit Kumari, Swaroop Singh, Anod Kumar, Ramadhar, Randhir Singh Dhira,
Large number of people from all walks of life attended the seminar in which the students outnumbered and took part in the deliberations.