Hello Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan,

Hope you are doing good and safe during the pandemic. This letter is from a student, who has studied from nursery and is currently pursuing Phd after completing an MPhil, and someone who understands the flaws and changes that the system needs. However, seeing a news story in Press Trust of India, which was published across various news portals on August 1, where you spoke of NEP being a game changer, made me write my concerns to you.

The PTI story quotes you saying, NEP 2020 envisions imparting 21st century and employability skills with no compromise on quality. These tall claims fall flat when one searches the NEP 2020 final document (uploaded by the MHRD) for its position on public funding, social justice and reservation. Public Funding is mentioned twice, Social Justice thrice (if we include Ministry of Social Justice also as a phrase) and surprisingly reservation finds zero mentions. How can a 21st century liberal or multi-disciplinary education policy function or even exist by excluding Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, PWDs and other marginalised groups?

On the other hand, your claim that the Four Year Multiple Entry/Exit Degree has a lot of opportunities for picking up many types of skills, which can be even used as employment opportunities. This sounds like a very liberal and 21st century idea, but actually means the contrary. The role of education isnt just to provide skills and Universities cannot just be skill training centres. They should be places of higher learning, which includes the skills required for earning employment. As a result of this focus on skill, our Universities and institutions of higher education will reduce the bargaining power of students who will not be allowed to dive deep into a subject of their choice. Instead, they will be sent away with some skill set which the private sector needs to ensure its profits. This philosophy of education is not in the national interest but only in the interest of companies and corporates.

See the article here:

Mr Kasturirangan, you are wrong, NEP is not liberal, it promotes exclusion - National Herald