SHILLONG, May 22: The Meghalaya chapter of the All India Save Education Committee (AISEC), comprising educationists and other stakeholders, rejected the National Education Policy, terming it as the communalisation, commercialisation, and centralisation of the education system in India.
On Thursday, the AISEC, which has chapters across the country, released the Draft People’s Education Policy as an alternative to NEP 2020.
The committee is seeking suggestions on the policy from various stakeholders, after which the final People’s Education Policy (PEP) will be released during a people’s parliament in Bengaluru in January 2026.
The committee will approach the central and Meghalaya governments to replace the NEP with the draft PEP in the interest of the education sector in India.
The committee said the central government, during the COVID pandemic in 2020, adopted the NEP when the country was under complete shutdown through a Cabinet decision without placing it on the floor of Parliament for meaningful debate and discussion.
Speaking during a programme here on Thursday, state AISEC convenor Samborlang Dkhar said the NEP will destroy the entire education system in India. He said the committee intends to hold nationwide deliberations on the PEP to improve the draft before placing it during the Bengaluru event next year.
The committee members also pointed out that the dropout rate has increased since the NEP was adopted. Batskhem Myrboh, the secretary of the committee, said the Meghalaya chapter was constituted following a series of informal discussions with like-minded individuals who want to save the education system of the country.
Patricia Mukhim, the editor of The Shillong Times, said the draft PEP appears to be a comprehensive policy which took every aspect of education into account.
Lamenting that several schools in Meghalaya are running as ghost schools and some with just one teachers, she said the PEP will look into these aspects. Even the state government should take a call on the PEP after going through it, she added.
Pointing out that the education system under the present regime has been communalised and some chapters have been deleted and added without any public discussions, Mukhim said the children should get an education where they can ask questions and things are not implanted on them.
Former IAS officer, Toki Blah, said there is a need to engage with people on the PEP, and since education is in the concurrent list, even the state government can take part in it.
Professor H. Srikanth from NEHU, too, said the NEP is communalising, corporatising, commercialising, and centralising education. He also said the states should have the decision-making power on education since it is in the concurrent list.
He said once the draft of the policy is finalised, they would approach the Centre and the state government with the PEP, presenting it as an alternative to NEP.
A synopsis of the Draft PEP 2025 proposes secular, scientific, democratic, and universal education, the features which are absent in the NEP 2020.
It proposes at least 10% of the central budget and 20-25% of the state budget for education. The government’s allocation of fund dwindled after the introduction of NEP 2020 and touched an all-time low.
The PEP also recommends the process of admission of students to be decided by universities and opposes the centralised national level entrance tests such as CUET and NEET.
