Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has proposed four measures for Congress-ruled states to create an alternative model for education, with a focus on academic planning, government recruitment and campus discrimination.
Rahul Gandhi has asked the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states to prepare reports covering their academic and vacancy calendars. The aim is to bring greater predictability to the education and recruitment systems in these states.
He has also called for a fool-proof mechanism to prevent paper leaks in state-level examinations, an issue that has featured prominently in his recent campaign on education and competitive examinations. Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly raised concerns over examination leaks, cancellations and recruitment delays through the Congress' Chhatron Ki Goonj campaign.
The third proposal involves implementing the Rohith Vemula Bill, which has been cleared by the Karnataka government, to address caste discrimination in educational institutions.
The proposed legislation is named after Rohith Vemula, the Dalit research scholar whose death at the University of Hyderabad in 2016 triggered nationwide protests over caste discrimination in higher education. The Karnataka proposal seeks to address discrimination, exclusion and injustice faced by students and staff in higher educational institutions.
He has previously written to chief ministers of Congress-ruled states, including Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, urging them to consider legislation against caste discrimination in educational institutions. Karnataka's proposal could become one of the first state-level laws specifically addressing such discrimination in higher education if enacted.
The fourth part of Rahul Gandhi's proposal focuses on strengthening the overall functioning of the education and examination system in Congress-governed states.
The Congress Working Committee has separately asked the party's four chief ministers to prepare reports on reforms needed in their respective education and examination systems and submit them to party president Mallikarjun Kharge within a month.
The proposals come as Rahul Gandhi has made examination reform and student concerns a central part of the Congress' recent education campaign. The party launched Chhatron Ki Goonj in June, highlighting paper leaks, cancelled examinations, high education costs and employment concerns.
The Congress is now seeking to position reforms undertaken by its state governments as an alternative approach to education policy, with the proposed measures spanning both school and higher education and the examination and recruitment systems.
