National meet opens: Kanhaiya seeks uniform education policy

Student leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday demanded a uniform education policy for India.

“We have a uniform tax policy. Why don’t we have a uniform education policy?” he said at an all-India convention of students, teachers and activists.

Delegates from many states are in the city for what the hosts describe as the first-ever national convention on student struggles.

Organised by the Delhi-based All India Forum for Right to Education, the two-day convention opened on Saturday with a procession to the city railway station.

Nidumamidi Swamiji, an outspoken critic of obscurantism, and Kanhaiya Kumar, former president, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, addressed the gathering.

“The government’s neglect of education is weakening our democracy and those affected the most by it are the marginalised,” Kumar said.

The gathering then moved to Shikshakara Bhavan, where Dr Anil Sadgopal, well-known academician, slammed the widespread privatisation of education.
He said the current political atmosphere was encouraging the solidarity of the Left and groups following Jyotirao Phule, Ambedkar and Periyar.

“This unity will be the foundation through which we can save our Constitution and republic from corporate attacks,” he said.

Madhu Prasad, member-Presidium, All India Forum for Right to Education, described his organisation as a platform to discuss and resist casteist, racist, gender-related discrimination and violence in the university space.
"Privatisation and saffronisation of education will be discussed during the convention," explained Prasad, who has taught at Delhi University for 36 years.