Sourav Ghosh, the General Secretary of AIDSO has issued the following Press Statement.
It has been reported in a section of media that the central government has started the process to review National Curriculum Framework (NCF) with the NCERT submitting its proposal about this to the MHRD earlier this month; based on this the rewriting of school textbooks will begin. When the whole country is reeling under corona lockdown and the NEP 2020 (National Education Policy) has been rejected by the education loving people; the Central government is unilaterally imposing its agenda is deplorable. So, the All India Committee of All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) severely condemns this undemocratic move of the BJP government. It is the democratic practice that the preparations for the NCF can start only after the NEP is passed. Firstly, without involving the people concerned about education and the states through a countrywide democratic debate the draft NEP was prepared undemocratically and also by the biased intellectuals. Secondly, about the anti-education recommendations of the NEP, across the country several eminent educationists, intellectuals, professors, scientists, teachers, student organisations including AIDSO had raised many serious objections and submitted the same to the government. It was the minimum obligation of a democratic government to consider all these objections and initiate a nationwide debate involving all these concerned people and organisations. This BJP government which has the dubious record of crushing any voice of decent has once again flouted all democratic norms; without even formally accepting the NEP it is out to formulate NCF and start the process of rewriting the textbooks is highly condemnable. When the entire country is engaged in a fight against deadly Corona virus and the economic distress of the lockdown, it is disgusting that the BJP government has found it be an opportune moment to impose one after the other anti-people policies including NEP & NCF and thus escape from the wrath of the people. We call upon all the education loving people of our country to defeat every effort of the central government to rewrite the textbooks in tune with its ‘Sangh Parivar ideology.’
AIDSO demands the central government to withhold the process of reviewing of NCF and rewriting of school textbooks and call for a nationwide democratic debates involving eminent educationists, intellectuals, professors, teachers, parents and student organisations about the recommendations of NEP-2020. AIDSO also calls upon the students, teachers and parents to raise their voice and get organised to resist all anti-education policies.
