38In Chennai, the rally was flagged off by T K
Rangarajan, with the presence of educationist V
Vasanthidevi, filmmaker Pa Ranjith, former SFI
all India joint secretary G. Selva and state secre-
tary V. Mariappan. Addressing the meeting, he
criticized the lethargy of state government for
the poor condition of government schools. Dr
Mylswamy Annadurai, former scientist of ISRO
along with V P Sanu, SFI all India president
flagged off the rally led by state vice president
Niruban Chakraborthy in Coimbatore. From
Cuddalore, writer Imayam flagged off the rally
led by A.Prakash and M. Kannan. In Kanyaku-
mari, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and former
education minister of Kerala, M A Baby flagged
off the rally led by state president A.T.Kannan. In
his address, he reiterated the progressive meas-
ures implemented by Kerala to strengthen the
public education system, which resulted in good
enrollments in government schools.
Amidst the hot weather, SFI activists pedalled
around 1500 KMs and received warm welcom-
ings from students, workers and parents. Small
meetings and protests were held at various recep-
tion points where SFI informed the public about
the pathetic state of the education system in Ta-
mil Nadu. The rally was ended on 31st May 2019
at Tiruchirapalli with a public meeting where
students across the state expressed their solidar-
ity to the demands raised by SFI.
It is a crude irony that the central government
came up with the draft National Education Policy
2019 on the same day the cycle rally ended which
proposes several dubious recommendations. The
‘India centred’ education system which it envis-
ages have serious loopholes to be directed to the
majoritarian nationalist agendas. Another pro-
posal to invite 200 global universities to estab-
lish their campuses in India will further widen
the gap to access higher education. Without
strengthening the existing educational institutes
at the school level and university level, educa-
tional inequality cannot be eliminated. I hope
SFI will undertake more struggles to protect stu-
dent demands and education.Student Struggle | June - July 2019