Student bodies give suggestions to improve education policy
SHILLONG: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) and the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) suggested that importance should be given to the mother tongue and regional languages by including them in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution together with English and Hindi and no particular language should be made compulsory.
The organisations sent a memorandum to the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal, in an effort to give their suggestions and views on the Draft National Policy 2019 with a hope that the concerns will be addressed before finalisation of the Education Policy.
On the contentious language issue, NESO said it is unacceptable to give the spotlight on the Hindi language asserting that the Draft Education Policy 2019 is trying to surreptitiously thrust Hindi to be the only language of the country.
The organisation said it does not support the idea that the importance of English should be reduced and promote only Hindi in the country. It is to be noted that both English and Hindi are the official languages of the country.
The KSU asserted that the draft National Education Policy 2019 suggested that it should stress on the aspects of regionalism such as distinct history, culture, language, habits, customs and others.
The KSU said that the history, culture, language and freedom fighters of the Khasi community are poorly represented in the schools’ curriculum.
Further, the union said it does not accept the idea of promoting the Hindi language and reduce the importance of the English language.
“However, more emphasis should instead be given to native languages in home regions on a par with both English and Hindi. Furthermore, no particular language should be made compulsory in the entire country,” the KSU said.
Turning to the socio-economic condition in the rural areas, the organisation said the measures taken in the Draft Education Policy 2019 will further deepen the divide between the rich and the poor.
On the other hand, the students urged the Union Minister that the diverse socio-economic condition should also be precisely taken into account so as to reduce the already widening gap between the rich and the poor.
NESO called upon the union government that the Education Policy should be relevant to the people of the region taking into consideration the cultural heritage, languages and dialects, history and geography of the entire Northeastern region and its people.
NESO said the union government should make a firm commitment to respect diversity of the Indian society and rights of the states though education is in the concurrent list, and to ensure prompt and judicious financing are the surest steps needed for any success of the finalised Education Policy.
The organisation said the Draft Education Policy 2019 lays emphasis on centrally constituted bodies which threaten the federal structure of the country.
In centrally constituted bodies, all the policies and rules will be framed by them and subsequently the states will have to implement the policies.
According to the organisations, the best option is to suggest ideas from the central bodies and leaving the option to the states to decide their own road maps in the best interest of the students but at the same time without diluting the basic intention of such a policy.
The KSU said that although rules and policies will be framed by the central bodies, the states should be endowed with the option of deciding their own roadmaps for the better interests of the students’ community in that particular state.
The organisation observed that the draft has offered no academic justification for a three year course for the pre-primary which will result in the postponement of completion of school education by one more year; this will definitely be a burden for the marginalised section of the society.
Further, NESO and KSU are of the opinion that a single Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for the country as a whole should be replaced by state-specific GER. The state of education should be considered and evaluated state-wise to evolve appropriate strategy for further roadmap and action plan. The financial allotment should be related to the state GER.
The KSU observed that a state-specific GER with a specific financial allocation will serve the purpose of the policy.
Stating that too little time was given to the stakeholders, NESO and KSU said more time should be given to the public to deliberate. NESO suggested that at least another six months should be given to the stakeholders across the country to deliberate in detail the desirability and workability of the DNEP 2019 after translating it into all the scheduled languages of the country.
NESO also felt that the Education Policy should not be implemented in a fragmented manner and more importantly, in haste.
“The states should be allowed to prepare the roadmaps for the different sectors after consulting the stakeholders and work out the required finances,” the organisations said.