A CORRESPONDENT
LAKHIMPUR: 'Save Government Education Day' was observed on Wednesday by the Assam State Committee of All India Democratic Students' Organization (AIDSO) across the State against intensifying the process of commercialization of education through the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 and the alleged destruction of the public education system throughout the State.
In this context, students gathered in various parts of the State, including Guwahati, Silchar, Mangaldai, Nalbari, Karimganj, Tezpur, Nagaon, Dhubri, Goalpara, North Lakhimpur, Majuli to stage protest, stated Pallab Pegu, the vice-president of AIDSO, Assam State Committee, in a press statement.
At 11.30 am while observing the day, protesting students gathered in front of Cotton University in Guwahati to register protest against the ongoing process of the alleged destruction of the public education system by implementing the National Education Policy- 2020. During the demonstration, the protesters made the streets abuzz with slogans to demand not to deprive the students of poor background from education opportunities by destroying the public education system, to improve the quality of public education by reintroducing the pass-fail system from Class 1, to appoint enough teachers, to take appropriate measures to protect the public education system to make arrangements to improve the infrastructure of public education, to stop hiring teachers for non-academic works.
Participating in the protest programme AIDSO State President Prajjwal Deb said, "In the interest of commercialization of education, the Congress government launched NEP, 1986 and then implemented Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to destroy government education and then by introducing the Right to Education Act, 2008 had legalized no detention policy. Moreover, no importance was given to teacher recruitment. The BJP government is subsequently implementing the same policy. Teaching is still severely disrupted due to lack of adequate teachers in many schools of the State. Moreover, the present BJP government has implemented the National Education Policy, 2020 and entrusted the responsibility of teaching from pre-primary to class II to untrained workers of the Anganwadi centres. Apart from this, through the process of closure and merger of schools they will destroy the remaining structure of public education. As a result of strict implementation of the policy of privatization, the quality of public education has deteriorated considerably when the Chief Minister has been education minister for 15 years. Now as Chief Minister he is determined to implement the National Education Policy, 2020 in the interest of the capitalist class. The main responsibility of maintaining the quality of education lies with the government."
He further said, "If the public education system is destroyed, the students of poor households will not only be deprived of education but will also become lame from all sides." He called upon the students and the people to protect the public education system by building up a long-standing student and mass movement against it.
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