Roll back NEP, reinstate scholarships, urge AIFRTE
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Rakshita Agarwal
- Updated: March 15, 2023
- IST: 6:24 pm
A demonstration was conducted here on Tuesday by the All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE), a group of academics, teachers, and students from diverse organisations calling for publicly funded, equitable, and free education for all.
The group questioned the recent rules that allowed foreign colleges to open campuses in India, claiming that these changes would now allow for the repatriation of earnings and the collection of fees without restriction or upper limits. The platform stated: “Although on the one hand, we are witnessing rapid fee increases and the promotion of self-financed courses, on the other hand, there has been a major downward trend in funding for numerous scholarship programmes catering to SC/ST, OBC, minority, and disabled students.
They demanded that the National Education Policy of 2020 (NEP) be repealed, arguing that it violated the idea of education for all. They said that the NEP was being foisted on the populace as an executive decision and that it had not been discussed in Parliament or State Assemblies.
The organisation proposed that funding for higher education institutions exclusively come from grants rather than loans, which increase institutional and individual debt. They also called for the promotion of market-oriented self-financing courses.It requested that the Central Universities discontinue using the Common University Entrance Exam (CUET) as a means of undergraduate programme entrance. Standardization has favoured CBSE students over those from other State boards, as evidenced by the Delhi University intake of 97% CBSE students this year and a significant decrease in admissions of female students, the platform claimed.
NEP 2020 drawbacks
In order to rescind the NEP 2020, the letter cited events including the closing and merging of public schools, the defunding of higher education institutions, the discontinuation of scholarship programmes in K–12 and higher education, and significant fee increases. The letter also discussed the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) draught policy, which would let international colleges to establish campuses in India with 100% restitution of earnings and no maximum limit, and how it would create a barrier to accessing a quality education in India. “On the one hand, there has been a tremendous decreasing trend in financing for numerous scholarship programmes catering to SC/ST, OBC, minority, and international students over the past several years, and we are seeing a rapid increase in tuition costs and the promotion of self-financed courses.
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