SFI will intensify agitation against NEP 2020, says its all India president Saji

Tirupati: Students’ Federation of India (SFI) All India president Adarsh M Saji said that the organisation will intensify its agitation against National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 by joining hands with student and youth organisations. Addressing a media conference in Tirupati on Saturday, he alleged that the Centre was using NEP 2020 to commercialise, centralise and communalise the education system.

Saji said around 89,000 government schools across the country had been closed in recent years and more than 65 lakh students had dropped out in the last four years due to neglect of public education and preference for private institutions. In Andhra Pradesh, he pointed out that over 12,000 schools were functioning with just one teacher. This forced a single teacher to handle all classes and subjects, badly affecting the quality of education for children from poor and marginalised sections.

The BJP-led NDA government was accused of systematically weakening government education. He criticised fee hikes and scholarship cuts in central universities, saying these measures were restricting education to those who could afford it and increasing the financial burden on backward section students.

He also criticised recent changes in labour laws, calling them an attack on workers, youth and students and said the Centre lacked commitment to public welfare. Saji strongly condemned changes in textbooks, alleging attempts to distort history. Describing NEP 2020 as a ‘policy of exclusion’, the SFI leader announced that protests would continue at the state and national levels.

SFI State secretary K Prasanna Kumar said the ongoing 25th State Conference in Tirupati resolved to oppose privatisation of new medical colleges in the State and to intensify the struggle for immediate payment of fee reimbursement dues amounting to Rs 8,000 crore. SFI district president Akbar and district secretary Bhagat Ravi were present at the meeting.