Bhubaneswar: The Odisha unit of All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) organised a rally from railway station to Lower PMG where a demonstration was held, Friday, to protest against a number of issues.
These include cancellation of student union elections, fee hikes in colleges and schools, closure of 966 schools in the state, non-introduction of no detention system from Class-1, vacancy of teaching posts, draft NEP etc.
The students group alleged that both the state and Central government are ruining the education system further with their bad policies. The National Education Policy 2019, which was presented by K. Kasturirangan Committee, is misleading, AIDSO said, “The 700-page document talked about concepts such as increasing public funding for education, discouraging private players in the education sector and decreasing the dropout ratio, but also suggested that non-profit private players should be encouraged to enter the sector. The education system should not be a profitable business but the government has that mindset and that’s why it is dangerous for the future generation,” said Subash Nayak, AIDSO secretary.
Nasim Sarkar, another member of AIDSO, said in recent times the government wanted to stop the freedom of student and teacher communities by structurally fragmenting the entire education system from top to the bottom. The recent cancellation of student elections is such an example.
He said fee structures in colleges and universities are very high which hamper the future of students. The situation is the same in self-financing courses which are increasing the fees in their own way.
The government is taking no steps to fill teaching posts and 966 schools in Odisha have been shut down due to poor student strength which shows the policy failure of bringing drop-outs to school. The Odisha Government has also failed to implement the ‘no detention’ policy in elementary schools, Sarkar said.
Ganesh Tripathy, president of AIDSO, said that from November 26 they will join the all India protest over these issues in Hyderabad.