Education Ministers want 'curriculum framework' withdrawn

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 6. Education Ministers from nine non-NDA governed States today threw in their lot with the movement against saffronisation of education by calling for a withdrawal of the `National Curriculum Framework for School Education' and the ``indigenous systems of knowledge'' introduced by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

A joint statement at the end of the three-day convention against communalisation of education here, the signatories - who included a number of politicians and academics - took exception to partners and allies of the BJP in the NDA Government remaining mute spectators to its policies which seek to destroy the secular character of education and undermine the foundations of India's nationhood.

The signatories to the joint statement said the `National Curriculum Framework' - released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training in November 2000 - was ``devoid of legitimacy''. Also, in their opinion it is a blueprint for lowering the quality of school education in the country and giving it a narrow, exclusivist, sectarian and obscurantist orientation.

``It grossly violates the National Policy on Education (1986, 1992) in which the thrust was on the promotion of strictly secular values.'' Demanding withdrawal of the `National Curriculum Framework', participants at the convention organised by SAHMAT added that no other document should be released in its place without a national consensus.

As for the UGC circular that introduces the ``so- called indigenous systems of knowledge'', the resolution describes this move of the commission as a bid to foster revivalism and destroy the scientific academic character of higher education in the name of traditional knowledge.

Besides demanding the withdrawal of the `National Curriculum Framework' and the UGC circular, the convention ended with a call for taking the States into consideration on matters pertaining to the national education policy. According to those who put their signatures to the document, the Central Government should immediately convene a meeting of State Education Ministers to discuss the national education policy.

Further, participants have objected to the manner in which the BJP-led Government had rendered the mechanism of consultation - normally mandatory for all issues pertaining to education - irrelevant by refusing to place the `National Curriculum Framework' for the consideration and approval of the Central Advisory Board of Education.

Meanwhile, commenting on the current state of affairs, participants noted that various measures adopted by the present Government marked a departure from the country's commitment to democracy, equality and secularism. Of the view that this posed a serious threat to the unity and integrity of the country, the resolution takes note of the fact that the present Government has converted almost every national-level educational and academic body into an instrument for implementing the communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar.

The resolution has the backing of the Education Ministers of West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Karnataka, Pondicherry, Delhi and Chhatisgarh. The other politicians who have joined the chorus are the Chief Minister of Chhatisgarh, Mr. Ajit Jogi; Parliamentarians, Ms. Shabana Azmi, Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyer, Mr. Eduardo Faleiro and Ms. Bharati Ray; Mr. Arjun Singh of the Congress(I), Mr. Sitaram Yechury and Ms. Brinda Karat of the CPI(M), and Mr. A. B. Bardhan of the CPI.

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