Bengaluru: Former UGC Chairman Prof Sukhadeo Thorat has alleged that myths and superstitions have started being taught in the name of knowledge through the BJP-led Centre’s National Education Policy, including in the higher education sector. He was speaking at the National People's Parliament held at the Ramaiah Technological Institute Hall in Bengaluru. He said that the claim that the Vedas have answers to all questions is anti-science. Brahmanical values are being propagated in the name of teaching the Sanskrit language, he criticised.
The education sector needs to act against this kind of regressive policy, he called.
He continued that the Centre is trying to bring the Upanishads and Vedas back into the curriculum completely when it should be scientific awareness that should be developed through education.
He pointed out that the central government implemented the National Education Policy in an undemocratic manner without discussing it with the states. The country's education experts were not involved in the formulation of the National Education Policy, he said.
He then criticised that the education sector is being commercialized by opening the door wide to private universities. Education is being alienated from poor students without providing even a single scholarship. He asked the center and all the states to fully implement the popular education policy.
He further pointed out, citing data that inter-group inequality in access to education is very high. He said that the latest data of 2017-18 of the National Sample Survey (NSS) shows that the enrolment rate of lower income groups in higher education is only 13 per cent, while the higher income group enrolment rate is 53 percent, The New India Express reported.