AISEC offers alternative to NEP 2020, opposes closure of govt schools in Karnataka
The committee has released a draft People's Education Policy-2025 (PEP), an alternative to National Education Policy (NEP 2020), on May 22 with a request to the government of Karnataka not to give non-teaching work to teachers, abandon the no-detention police, and to strengthen public education.
Allama Prabhu Bettaduru, president of AISEC, told reporters, 'Over the last five years, we had organised hundreds of workshops, debates, discussions, seminars, symposia, conventions and public gatherings to seek the opinion of people on NEP-2020, and also their alternative to its contentious recommendations.
'We feel proud to say that this PEP is the outcome of tireless efforts of hundreds of educationists and thousands of teachers, professors, students and the general public. Due to their tireless efforts, the government of Karnataka has constituted a commission to formulate a State Education Policy (SEP),' he said.
'In spite of severe resentment among the people to various recommendations of NEP 2020, we are shocked to note that the government of Karnataka has decided to close down 6,000 government schools. This closure of schools, under the pretext of merger, is an important recommendation of NEP 2020,' he added.
The draft PEP recommends the two language formula to promote the mother tongue and English language, scientifically developing the language policy, secular, scientific, democratic and universal education system, at least 10% of the Central budget and 20 to 25% of the State budget for education sector.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
42 minutes ago
- Time of India
People lose Rs 20,000 crore per year in online gaming: Data
Representative image NEW DELHI: Much against the arguments put forth by gaming companies against the ban on real-money gaming, the government estimates that around 45 crore people lose close to Rs 20,000 crore every year in online real-money gaming, according to data provided by an official source on Wednesday. The source said the government believes that online real-money gaming is turning into a "major problem for society," and decided to prioritise people's welfare over the revenue loss it will suffer on account of the ban. "There is a rough estimate that 45 crore people lose money every year. Total impact of the loss is estimated to be around Rs 20,000 crore," the source said, on a day when the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 was tabled and passed in the Lok Sabha. "Every parliamentarian has raised concerns about the ill effects of online gaming involving money. Between revenue from one-third of the industry segment and social welfare, the government has chosen welfare of society," the source said. The bill proposes to promote e-sports and online social gaming while banning money gaming in any form. "There will be a budget for it, and schemes and authority for their promotion. They comprise two-thirds of the industry. It will create job opportunities for the online gaming industry," the source said. Action under the bill against entities involved in money gaming will be taken mainly by state govts. Any person offering an online money gaming service in violation of stipulated provisions will face imprisonment of up to three years or a fine that may extend to Rs 1 crore, or both. The provisions also stipulate imprisonment of up to two years and/or a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh, or both, for those putting out advertisements in contravention of rules. Several online real-money gaming platforms "masquerade as game of skills" entities to differentiate themselves from gambling or betting, the source said. "Those who play the games are victims. They will not be punished as per the bill, but there will be action against those who provide real-money gaming platforms, facilitate transaction services, etc," the source said. The government has been making efforts for the last three-and-a-half years, which were being bypassed by the real-money gaming players. "Government tried to check it through GST, but it was being bypassed. There was a proposal for a regulatory body, but that was impacted by a conflict of interest. The provisions under the bill were drafted after several complaints were received from the public and their representatives," the source said.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Plea seeking admission of child to Class I dismissed
Panaji: The high court has dismissed a petition filed by a parent of a five-year-old girl seeking admission to Class I. The dismissal occurred after state govt told the court that the Dec 13, 2022 circular regarding NEP, 2020 and the RTE Act, 2009 has been implemented from 2025-26. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The girl's father submitted before the HC that, according to the NEP, a child must complete six years in the current academic year to be eligible for admission to Class I. However, he claimed to have read a report indicating the policy was on hold and would be implemented from 2026-27. He stated that his daughter had completed five years and 11 months, and was not being promoted from KG to Class I. State govt countered the father's contention that the policy has been postponed to 2026-2027. The father failed to produce any document stating the policy had been deferred to the next academic year. The HC recorded govt's statement that the criteria for admission to Class I would be six years and above, and that the child does not fulfil the criteria. It subsequently disposed of the petition.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
STEM education should be inclusive of students with disabilities
Increased access, equity, and inclusion for disadvantaged and underprivileged students in the education sector are envisioned in the current National Education Policy, 2020. This is a welcome step towards making society truly inclusive, but while this is an ideal that one can aspire to, the fact is that most higher education institutions (HEIs) have a long way to go to make it possible. When it comes to education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, the reality is depressingly different, in even the most well-funded institutions. The estimate from the National Family Health Survey 5 (in a publication of the Indian Council of Medical Research) is that there are 63 million people with disabilities in India. This is less than 5% of the population and below the World Health Organization data which suggest that about 15% of the world population lives with with some form of disability. There is no dearth of well-meaning legislation: the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009 guarantees access to free education up to the age of 14, including for children with disabilities. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 provides a comprehensive set of guidelines with considerable thought gone into them. It spells out the duties of educational institutions and the responsibility of the Union and the State governments to promote inclusive education. Unfortunately, though, the reality is very different across the country. At the primary and secondary levels, students with disabilities are frequently segregated in special-needs schools, an unintended consequence of which is that their access to higher education and their exposure to different areas of study is selective and limited. Reservation norms Under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, all government and government-aided higher educational institutions are required to reserve 4% of seats for students with disabilities. Since most higher education and research institutions in India fall in this group, it is important that the Act be implemented in practice as well as in spirit. Disabilities that are covered include blindness and low vision, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, cerebral palsy and related disabilities, specific learning disabilities, and autism spectrum disorder. At present, there are few institutions where this requirement is met, and wherever it is met institutionally, it is not done on a more fine-grained level, namely across departments. Indeed, most students with disabilities get admission through a so-called horizontal quota: seats are not specifically reserved for students with disabilities, and often they are discouraged from science subjects since that will decrease the number of seats for other students. In short, they continue to face ableism, the various practices and prejudices that disadvantage disabled students and researchers. Ableism effectively is discrimination in favour of non-disabled people. The lack of tangible inclusivity measures in higher education institutions means that students with diverse abilities, with a keen interest in STEM subjects, and perhaps having been encouraged up to the high-school level, find the doors of tertiary education closed to them. The institutions face many hurdles on the road to inclusivity. Campuses require a significant investment in order to become accessible: Most classrooms, laboratories, and hostels cannot accommodate students with disabilities. Administrators have many complex choices to make on where their (usually meagre) funds are to be deployed, and something that impacts less than 5% of the students may not seem cost-effective, but these are considerations that one needs to rise above. Measures that have been implemented in countries in the developing world as well as in developed nations, in addition to strengthening national legal frameworks (UNESCO guidelines), include devising policies and strategies inclusive of persons with disabilities; making education accessible; adapting the form and substance of education; monitoring the implementation of the right to education for persons with disabilities; and promoting the right to education of persons with disabilities. Accessibility audit Reservation in education addresses only a small part of these rights. A far more urgent need is for sensitisation and training. Campuses constructed after 2016 should adhere to the National Building Code but this is rarely enforced. Older campuses require an accessibility audit, to learn what needs to be done in terms of reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. Campuses are typically large in extent. Older buildings have no lifts or ramps. Toilets are inaccessible. The list is long. Conventional classrooms and laboratories are ableist: chairs, tables, and benches are of fixed heights, and access to laboratory equipment such as fume-hoods and furnaces is poor. Teaching and learning spaces in STEM do not easily adapt for students with disabilities who are then naturally discouraged from pursuing such disciplines. Making laboratory experiments in science accessible requires both dedication and sensitivity. Physical access for students with impaired mobility is daunting, but the bias in the design of almost all laboratory experiments and much of pedagogy in general poses a major challenge for students with impaired vision. Since other than in pure mathematics, there is a component of laboratory instruction in all science courses, the physical environment of most existing teaching (or research) laboratories exclude students with disabilities. There is enough empirical evidence to suggest that when given the same opportunities and access, students with disabilities perform equally well as other students. There is also evidence to suggest that awareness of special needs facilitates the science that has to be developed to mitigate them. The science of optometry started from a need to correct poor vision, and telephony traces its motivation to Alexander Graham Bell's need to communicate with his wife and mother (both of whom had difficulty hearing) but there are many other examples, with more wide-ranging benefits. With today's technology it requires little additional effort to make laboratory experiments accessible to students with disabilities, be it through the use of speech-activated equipment, AI and electronics-based interfaces to convert signals from one form to the other (say visual to audio for the visually challenged and audio to visual for hearing challenged) In this age, there is increased awareness of human rights and an increased awareness of diversity and of the various identities. Doing science is a privilege, and this privilege needs to be shared by all those who wish to be scientists. More to the point, this is a privilege that should not be denied to anybody, least of all because of the imagined limitations of mind or body. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy is a Honorary Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Berhampur, Odisha; views are personal
