Shillong, July 30: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), which comprises of the Khasi Students’ Union , All Assam Students’ Union , Naga Students’ Federation , Mizo Zirlai Pawl , Twipra Students’ Federation , All Manipur Students’ Union, Garo Students’ Union and All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union, representing eight major students’ movements of the seven North Eastern States, is sending this representation and suggestion in views on the Draft National Policy 2019 with a firm belief that our genuine concerns will be addressed before finalisation of the Education Policy.
The Draft Education Policy 2019 emphasisis on the need to have Centrally Constituted Bodies in which all the policies and rules will be framed by them and the States will be only asked to implement them. Such a policy is not acceptable as it threatens the Federal structure of the country.
The best option is to suggest ideas from the Central Bodies and leaving it to the option of the states to decide their own road maps in the best interest of the student but at the same time without diluting the basic intention of such a policy.
The Draft Education Policy 2019 also has to take into account the diverse socio-economic condition in the rural areas as most of the measures will further deepen the divide between the rich and the poor.
NESO does not support the idea that the importance of English should be reduced and to promote only Hindi in the country. It is to be noted that both English and Hindi are the official language of the country.
The Draft Education Policy 2019 is trying to surreptitiously thrust Hindi to be the only language of the country in which it can never be accepted but rather more importance to be given to the mother tongue and regional languages by including them in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution together with English and Hindi and no particular language should be made compulsory.
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.
NESO is of the opinion that a single 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 time offered to give the views of the stakeholders is too limited and they feel 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.
A firm commitment of the Union government to respect diversity of the Indian society, to respect right 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 finalized Education Policy. These commitments should be integral components of any policy document to succeed. The memorandum was sign by the Chairman of NESO Mr B Jyrwa and the general secretary Mr Sinam Prakash Singh.
