Lashing out at the State Government for hurriedly implementing the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 without consultation at the state level, Congress Legislature Party Chief Siddaramaiah has urged the government to withdraw its order immediately.
The former chief minister said that the BJP-led State Government was being dictatorial in its approach to the matter and called its move an insult to the federal structure of the union of states.
"The State Government is rushing to implement this policy with no consultation or discussions on how it impacts students of Karnataka. Neither teachers, professors, education policy experts, and Opposition leaders have been approached to hold discussions," Siddarmaiah said. He pointed out to the concerns he has noticed in the new education policy that Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan announced as implemented on Saturday.
"The draft policy says that Kannada will be taught only for two semesters. After severe protests in the state, Ashwath Narayana had said that issue will be resolved... but Saturday's order makes no mention of the solution. The NEP allows a student to get enough credits online thus eliminating the need for them to attend physical classes. This in effect has reduced universities to distance education course institutions. The policy will end up consuming government universities and make way for private universities to run amok. This decision has been included by the government only to give private universities a free hand while reducing government universities into certificate selling shops," Siddaramaiah charged.
On Saturday, the State Government issued an order implementing the National Education Policy-2020 from the current academic year. "With this, Karnataka becomes the first state in the country to issue the order on implementation of NEP-2020," Dr Ashwath Narayan had said.
