All India Students’ Association (AISA) president Neha Bora on Tuesday said wider access to education is essential for reducing social disparities and ensuring development, arguing that keeping a large section of the population outside the education system would deepen inequality.
Speaking at an interaction organised by the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) at the Mumbai Press Club, Bora said education was a common factor in the progress of societies and countries. She referred to comparisons based on indicators including mortality, infant mortality, literacy, happiness and press freedom, and said education consistently emerged as a factor associated with progress.
“One common factor is education. If you are trying to hold on to disparities and trying to keep a major section of your society out of education, you are also ensuring that you keep staying behind,” Bora said.
The AISA president said education should serve the wider interests of society and argued that the government has a responsibility to provide quality education to all.
“The dream was to build a country based on equality. Democracy is, at its heart, about equality. We must honour our ancestors who fought for this ideal and carry their vision forward. Equality is a beautiful thing, and it is the foundation of a just society,” she said.
Bora also criticised the growing role of privatisation in education. She said problems in the education system had accumulated over several years and called for a comprehensive overhaul based on practical measures.
Her comments come amid a series of education-related campaigns and protests led or supported by AISA this year. Bora was part of the 23-day hunger strike at Delhi's Jantar Mantar over alleged NEET paper leaks and has subsequently participated in protests over recruitment examination irregularities in Jharkhand.
AISA has also been running its ‘Gen Z Rising’ campaign, with Bora travelling to different states to discuss education, employment and issues affecting students and young people. At a student-youth meeting in Vijayawada last week, she called for pending fee-reimbursement dues to be cleared, more universities and higher education institutions to be established, and an inquiry into alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations.
In another recent interaction, Bora called examination irregularities a systemic problem and argued that they could not be addressed only by increasing penalties. She has also called for the abolition of the National Testing Agency, citing repeated examination failures, paper leaks and cancellations.
