The new Congress Government in Karnataka is bent on withdrawing the National Education Policy (NEP) that was hurriedly implemented by the previous BJP Government. In fact, the then BJP Government was the only State in the country to have implemented the New Education Policy.
The Union Government – after 35 years – passed the New Education Policy claiming it to be in tune with the today’s needs. But, there have been very little awareness created on it. Before NEP, there used to be 10+2 structure. In the new education policy it is 5+3+3+4 structure.
While some of them welcome NEP, there are many who are pointing fingers at its loopholes. One of the major concerns in this policy is four years of under-graduation. Under this, students can quit whenever they want to and they will be provided with certificates. This will create more number of dropouts. What more, they could come back and resume their degree, later in the years.
While this is aimed at having more employment opportunities, in reality, chances of students continuing the education and having a sound knowledge in one subject is going to be rare. In simple words, the country will have no experts in any subjects, fear experts.
The BJP Government in the State implemented the National Education policy (NEP) and the reason for it is quite visible to everyone. In spite of students and other educationists flagging off red flags in the policy, the state Government went ahead and implemented without even proper planning. Karnataka was the first state in the country to have implemented NEP in 2022.
While the then BJP Government may have benefitted from implementing the policy, it was the student community that was left in lurch. There were no proper syllabus copies for degree students and there was no infrastructure put in place, first. This implementation was like building a building without a proper base.
Besides, the textbook committee appointed by the previous BJP Government came in for a severe criticism from the public for its inclusion of Saffron ideologies.
However, with the new Congress Government in place, the Government is keen on scrapping NEP and introducing State Education Policy.
The Governments may and come go and if they keep interfering in students’ education, it is the future generation that will be hit hard. They will find it hard to cope with the change of syllabus whenever the new governments come. It will be totally chaos in the whole education system.
It’s not fair for the students to go through this kind of political game. If they have disagreements in the policies, they can remove the part which is not reliable than choosing to abolish, completely. Students’ life isn’t a game that every new government want to toy with it.