Communal ideas have replaced scientific content in education system: Kanhaiya

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, October 23

Students in India have to wage relentless struggle to bring about changes in the education system to ensure that every child from any strata of society gets quality education from the primary school level to the advanced level, said Kanhaiya Kumar, leader of the All India Students Federation.

The former president of the Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNU) Students Union said this at a seminar on ‘Challenges of education: increasing cost – reducing jobs’ at the Punjabi Bhawan today.

Kanhaiya said ongoing policies of the government had made education costly and out of reach of the common man. Quality education right from the primary-level to the advanced-level had become a dream for the ordinary people. The scientific content and outlook was being replaced with obscurantist and communal ideas, removing the secular and democratic content from the education system, he said.

Quoting the incidents in the JNU, the Central University, Hyderabad and several other places, he said there was a subtle move to hand over the higher education to the corporate sector and 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 a 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 unpatriotic and anti-national.”

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 outrightly opens the doors to the private sector to run education system in the country with profit motive,” he said.

Amar Jeet Kaur, National Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), cautioned that dangers were emanating with the policies of the government at the centre to introduce obscurantist ideas in the education system. Efforts to mix science with mythology were a matter of concern for our society which was based on the principle of unity in diversity and assimilation of various cultures. Such tendencies were a serious threat to harmony in our society, she said.

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.