Student Struggle – July 23, 2019

nances and resources- and in today’s age it can
only mean more privatization and more cost cut-
ting. More dangerous is the idea of preparing a
data sheet of all schools and pupils and handing
it to the MHRD.
The Policy also talks about closing down schools
in the interior and developing school clusters or
‘complexes’. The NITI Aayog cost cutting meas-
ures have already shut down schools and reduced
the already limited opportunities for students
from poor backgrounds. This measure is bound
to aggravate that crisis. The irony is that the pol-
icy draft recognises that a substantial number of
students are lost in subsequent stages due to non-
availability of infrastructure. The draft proposes
to fill the gap through paid bus rides, rickshaws
or walking escorts which all are unrealistic and
basically homilies to hide the real objective of
fund cuts and school closures.

The draft policy is essentially a means to inte-

grate government provisions with the private,

for-profit institutions as well as the RSS spon-

sored Ekal Vidyalayas. One of the partly quixotic

and partly sinister moves is to draft the best per-

formers among each class as tutors. This de-pro-

fessionalizing approach to education is meant to

pave the way for instructors outside the teaching

fold, i.e. the ‘true local heroes’ in the policy docu-

ment’s euphemistic terms, to infiltrate schools.

We know what that means for promoting con-

stitutional ideals or scientific temper in children.

The draft NEP for Higher Education is more

straightforward in its approach. After various

versions and acronyms (the Prime Minister is

very fond of acronyms) like the HEI, HEERA,

HEFA, now we have the Rashtriya Shiksha Aaay-

og or the RSA designed to have an overall con-

trol. The overall thrust is the same which was

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