Various student organisations on Thursday protested outside the Ministry of Education at Shastri Bhawan demanding the reopening of schools and colleges across Delhi. Student bodies like All India Students Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Democratic Students Union (DSU) participated in the protest, which was organised by the All India Forum for Right To Education (AIFRTE).
Delhi University professor and AIFRTE organising secretary Dr Vikas Gupta said that the protest was also against the implementation of NEP 2020, especially the four-year undergraduate programme at the University of Delhi. "If our issues are not heard, then on December 24, protests will be held across every state headquarters of these student organisations," said Gupta before the protest.
Over a hundred students met in front of Shastri Bhawan around 1 pm, where the different organisations signed the memorandum to reopen schools. "A delegation of five people had entered the ministry to submit the memorandum for reopening educational institutions. We have also submitted a memorandum against the implementation of NEP 2020," said Ambedkar University Delhi student and SFI Delhi Vice-President Utkarsh, who was present at the protest. "The government wants to implement the NEP when students are not on campus to resist it. Therefore, they are continuing with online classes even when everything else has reopened," Utkarsh stated.
AISA Delhi University Secretary Ritwik Raj, who was also at the protest, said, "The authorities want to normalise online classes and therefore, they are not stopping it and reopening schools and colleges. Continuing online classes is one of the propositions of the NEP but the students don't want to learn online anymore."
Speaking to Edexlive, Sumit Kataria, SFI Delhi's President, said, "We submitted the memorandum to the joint secretary Mrutyunjay Behera, who assured us that campuses will be reopened soon. However, he didn't assure us anything about scrapping the four-year undergraduate programme or the changes suggested in the NEP."
