Student organizations join hands against NEP

New Delhi: Under the name "United Students of India," student organizations—including those associated with INDIA alliance parties—have united to express their opposition to the National Education Policy, 2020. On January 12 of the next year, they plan to march to Parliament.

Student union representatives stated that sixteen organisations, representing about five crore students, have united against the NEP and are calling for reforms, which include free education.

Addressing a press conference here, CVMP Ezhiarasan, the secretary of the DMK’s student wing, said NEP is promoting “commercialisation, saffronisation and privatisation” and it is against the idea of social justice, PTI reported.

The government should ensure free education from school level to graduation and there should be a national employment guarantee Act, he said, adding the student groups will hold a “Parliament march” in Delhi on January 12 and another rally will be held in Chennai on February 1.

The organisations that are a part of the grouping include the All India Students’ Association (AISA), All India Students’ Bloc (AISB), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal (CRJD), Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), DMK Student Wing, Dravidian Students’ Federation, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF), Progressive Students Union (PSU), RLD Chatra Sabha, Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, Satro Mukti Sangram Samiti, Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Tribal Students’ Union.

A statement by the United Students of India said, “The attack on quality education in India is scaling dangerous heights under the current BJP-led union government.” “The RSS-backed government not only aims to undermine and dismantle the public education system but also seeks to replace it with a communal, destructive scheme that fundamentally contradicts the constitutional vision of education. The BJP government have even initiated their attempt to remove the name of the country India from textbooks,” it said.

The groups unitedly adopted the slogan ‘Save Education, Reject NEP; Save India, Reject BJP’, and have said they will conduct campaigns across the country, culminating in the Parliament March in Delhi, followed by a rally in Chennai.

The students’ groups have also sought the creation of rights and opportunities for the SC, ST, OBC and other marginalised groups, and conduct of student unions’ elections across campuses, among others.

They also invited other “like-minded” student organisations to join the grouping ‘United Students of India’.