'Students divided in name of common school system'

New Delhi: Common schools for everyone will in "no way result" in education of masses, as "students are divided" in schools in the name of uniformity, an academician said on Wednesday.

At a meet on 'Exploring Current Educational Scenario - Issues and Possible Solutions', Delhi University history professor Vikas Gupta said: "It is not about how many students are admitted from different castes and religious backgrounds in the same school, but after being admitted, the level of their participation taken and allowed in schools is largely important."

How much of diversity is visible at this point, he asked, criticizing the governments, both at the Central and state levels, for "forcefully imposing one kind of knowledge and language to the students".

Terming today's diversity and uniformity in schools as "mechanical bulldozing", Gupta said that current education system is in complete contrast with the Justice Rajinder Sachar committee report which suggested that every public institute must maintain immense diversity.

"We pretend that the lower section of society is educated... that is illusion," he said, adding that diversity is not only about the intake in schools.

Interacting with the minority community students in the meeting, Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi Marlena said: "Instead of bringing experts from America and Europe, we used common sense to make sure government schools in Delhi run successfully."

However, she added that this common sense was not being implemented till today.