Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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It encourages centralisation and commercialisation: Yechury
The draft National Education Policy contravenes the Constitution and the federal system, according to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In a letter to the Human Resource Development Minister on Saturday, party general secretary Sitaram Yechury called for the complete withdrawal of the chapter recommending the centralisation of powers in education governance. The Constitution puts education in the Concurrent List, giving authority and responsibility to both the States and the Centre. However, Mr. Yechury alleged that the draft had robbed the States by creating “an excessively centralised structure of authority” and vesting overarching powers with the PM-led Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA).
One-size-fits-all solution
“States are expected to function merely as local-level units of the RSA, without having the freedom to establish their own priorities or position themselves critically against the policies of the Centre,” said the letter. “The RSA hierarchy of decision-making is an insult to the federal character of our Constitution… it imposes uniformity and one-size-fits-all solutions on a diversity of learning needs and circumstances that require nuanced policy responses,” it said. Mr. Yechury also opposed the “elitist and pro-corporate” thrust of the policy, claiming that it would ensure the “centralisation, commercialisation and communalisation of the Indian education system”. He called for wider consultations before the policy was finalised. He observed that the draft policy had set up an ambitious gross enrolment ratio target of 50% by 2035, but hoped that the target would be achieved without binding the Union government to funding commitments.
