Central govt 'can't unilaterally implement, impose' new education policy in Gujarat

By Our Representative
The All India Save Education Committee (AISEC), in a letter to Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, has said that the Central government cannot take decision for “unilaterally” implementing the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in the state. Underlining that education is in the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution, it said, the Centre implementing it would runs contrary to the federal democratic structure of the country.

Signed by Prakash N Shah, president, and Tarun Kanti Naskar, general secretary, AISEC, the letter said, if implemented unilaterally would promote “centralization of all power in the hands of the Central government”, pointing out, it “cannot force the State governments to implement the NEP 2020.”
Stating that AISEC, an advocacy group headquartered in Kolkata, has been “fighting against the anti-people NEP 2020 since the time it was first published in the form of a draft in 2019”, the letter said, “The policy document has not been even placed in the Parliament for a meaningful discussion.”
It recalled, it was “quite undemocratically” adopted and sought to be “implemented through a Cabinet decision on 29th July 2020, the death anniversary of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar”, the letter believevd, thereby, it almost “dishonoured” this architect of modern education in India.
“We are of the considered view that NEP is “anti-people, anti-poor, anti-democratic and runs against the inculcation of secular and scientific temper as envisaged in the Constitution”, the letter said, asking the Gujarat CM to play the “constitutionally conferred role in scrapping this NEP 2020 and help constitute a commission with eminent educationists as members to formulate an alternative, pro-people education policy.”

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