Academicians and experts from across the country have opined that the government should stem the trend of commercialisation of education as it widens the gap between the haves and have-nots and thus increases the disparity among the citizens. The opinions were released on Saturday by the Students Islamic Organisation as part of the New Education Policy 2015 that was prepared by them after holding consultations all over the country since January 2015.
Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation who was the chief guest, released the analytical report quoting Swami Vivekananda said, “The purpose of education should be the liberation of self and for welfare of the world.”
Commenting on the expectations of the country’s academicians from the government he said, “The New National Education Policy must simultaneously achieve four objectives — Equity, Access, Excellence and Employability. Promotion of communal harmony, secularism, national unity and integration, social justice, gender justice, tolerance and respect for pluralism and diversity, and peace in the world must be the guiding purpose of the system of education at all levels.”
Mohammad Salman, president of SIO, said, “The findings are exhaustive and we have classified them under various heads that include school education, higher education, teacher education, vocationalisation, language policy and technical education and research in higher education. Experts from the field of education have felt that there should be a uniform education policy for all sections of the society by doing away with the cost-based education. This would ensure that a uniform quality of education would be provided to all stratas of the society especially to those sections that have been left out or cannot afford quality education,” said Mr Salman.
He further added that the SIO held 19 consultancy meets in as many states and involved various prominent personalities from the individual states to give their inputs for the New Education Policy draft. He added that though education among the Muslim community was also one of the important suggestions received from various experts, it was included in the general category of economically backward classes.
“We have submitted the draft recommendations to MHRD and state education department as part of suggestion for new educational policy 2015 and hope that the same are included for the benefit of the masses,” said Mr Salman.
