Several student organisations, under the banner of All India Forum to Save Public Education, have come together to write a letter to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind highlighting issues that students across Indian colleges and universities are facing and asking him to take action. The letter will be sent to the President via a mass mail campaign on June 15. They have also started an online campaign to gather support from students and a Twitter campaign — Education Ministry Must Act — with a hashtag of these words together in support of the cause. While student unions and organisations across the country have been making similar demands and suggestions for the past year, they have now joined forces and expect more impact.
This is the umpteenth letter the students will write to the President on issues that they are facing. Never in his tenure has President Kovind entertained their demands enough to reply to them. Then why send a letter again? JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh said that the letter is not the only form of protest they have planned. "While several unions were talking about their own campuses and the difficulties they face, this is not a fight we need to fight alone. Every campus is facing similar problems. While this petition is not the protest in its entirety, it is a step forward to the protest we are planning. With the petition, we reach out to the authorities. If they hear us, well and good. If not, we will come together to fight the NEP and the blended mode of education. The government is not even talking about the students' concerns — they are just sidelining things. In the coming days the student organisations will be seen in action together and not on campus-specific issues," she added.
Ever since the University Grants Commission came out with the plan for blended learning, many students and teachers have been protesting against it calling it divisive and classist. The letter from the forum also highlighted the issue with the blended mode and added that even if there are some positive aspects to the plan, it is skewed towards those who have a socio-economic advantage. "Though UGC has claimed that the necessary resources such as high-speed internet, hardware, and other infrastructure shall be made readily available for the ease of students, how to implement the same in a nation plagued with the digital divide is not mentioned. The claim that these issues can be solved readily with a budgetary allocation of 3 to 3.5 per cent is nothing but an assumption of the government that is devoid of any considerations to social and material reality," the letter said and added that vaccination for all students and staff must be arranged with haste.
Many students in various higher educational institutions have been complaining that their fellowships and scholarships have not been disbursed. Not only has this stopped them from continuing their research it has also caused financial issues for those who are the sole bread earners for their family. "PhD students couldn't continue with their research during the pandemic due to a lack of resources owing to a curtailment in university functioning. Since there's already a provision by UGC for the final year PhD scholars to extend the duration of their PhD, we request you to extend the benefits of the provision to all PhD scholars irrespective of which year of their research they are in," wrote the students in their letter on behalf of the forum. "We also request the Government to ensure that students who apply for higher education face no discrimination due to differential policy of board examination and university-specific exams due to the ongoing pandemic. We hope the Government will ensure that students especially the ones coming from marginalised communities are not pushed away from attaining higher education," it added.
The students said that even though the formation of Task Forces across institutes to "deliberate on academic activities and policy decisions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a welcome step, the exclusion of students’ representation - the most important stakeholder in the academic process, is regrettable and needs urgent remedy". The students also demanded special packages for families of students from marginalised communities who have been one of the most affected sections of society. "We request you to consider our submissions in the larger interest of the country's student community," it added.
