No roadmap, fundamental goal in New Education Policy, 2020: Congress

The Congress on Sunday said the new National Education Policy misses the fundamental goal of human development and expansion of knowledge, noting that it is high on "catchwords" and "verbosity" but lacks critical finances and a coherent roadmap for implementation.

New Delhi:Stepping up attack on Centre over the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Congress said that the new policy misses the fundamental goal of human development and expansion of knowledge.

While addressing a press conference, on Sunday, Congress leaders MM Pallam Raju, Rajeev Gowda and Randeep Surjewala said the NEP seeks to create a digital divide between the poor and the rich as it promotes privatisation of public education and "this will lead to it going out of reach of the middle class and the disadvantaged in the society".

Former HRD minister Pallam Raju stated that the policy has been launched by the Government without any consultation and has no roadmap for its implementation. He also mentioned that it will create a digital gap in the country.

"NEP 2020 lays principal focus on online education and distance learning to increase Gross Enrollment Ratio from 26 per cent to 50 per cent. In the absence of Digital infrastructure and lack of access to computers/internet, this will lead to increased segregation of poor and disadvantaged by creating Digital Divide," said Pallam Raju.

Congress also questioned the government's intent in raising spending on education to 6 per cent of the GDP, saying the same has fallen from 4.14 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 3.2 per cent currently under the Modi government and is likely to fall further due to cuts in outlays on account of resource crunch due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Congress leader Rajiv Gowda, who was also present in the media briefing, further explained, "As per the data of Unified District Information on School Education, only 9.85% of Government schools have a functional computer and 4.09% have an internet connection. This itself puts a question mark on the overwhelming reliance on online education in NEP 2020."

Meanwhile, Congress' Chief Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala asserted "The National Education Policy 2020, which aimed to pave the way for transformational reforms in school and higher education, is high on catchwords, gloss, appearance and verbosity yet lacks a coherent implementational roadmap and strategy, clearly defined milestones and the critical finances necessary to execute this grand vision. It will have implications for socially and economically disadvantaged groups of SC/ST/OBCs, saying that the policy has no mention of reservations- be it for students or teachers or other employees."

"Considering that NEP 2020 visualises increased reliance on private education and a shrinking of public institutions, it provides no alternative or way forward vis-a-vis denial of educational opportunities for SC, ST and OBCs consequent to shrinkage of public institutions," Surjewala added.

The party also alleged that the new policy promotes privatisation of public education which will inevitably lead to funding cuts, fee hikes and expensive education in the absence of grants from the Government and it will become out of reach for the middle class and the disadvantaged.

The Congress leaders questioned the timing of the new policy amid Coronavirus pandemic when all educational institutions are closed. "More so when almost the entire academia has complained of no deliberations, no consultations and no discussion except with BJP-RSS affiliates. On a policy that impacts and affects our present and future generations, even Parliamentary oversight has been circumvented," said Pallam Raju.

He further added, "Even this budgeted amount will see a cut of 40% owing to the Corona pandemic, taking education spending to 2% of the total budget. There is a huge mismatch between promise and delivery."

Congress also stated the NEP's dependence on Aanganwadis for delivering quality "Early Childhood Care and Education" would impose burden over its workers as they don't have adequate facilities there.

Gowda said that figures from December 2019 show that 3.62 lakh Aanganwadi centres don't have toilets and 1.59 lakhs don't even have drinking water.

He also cruised over the objective of NEP 2020 of "critical thinking" and "spirit of enquiry", saying that it circumvented by "attack" on universities, institutional autonomy and freedom of expressions.