Students associated with the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) staged a demonstration outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner in Kalaburagi on Tuesday demanding the government put aside the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) and strengthen institutions of higher education.
The agitating activists alleged that higher education in the State was getting dearer with each year passing because of the erroneous education policy of the successive governments that paved the way for the commercialization of education.
“The education at Gulbarga University is no exception. The fee structure in government, private and autonomous colleges is revised every year with a considerable hike. Making higher education a commercial product and selling it at higher prices to wealthy people is the aim of NEP 2020. On the one hand, education is getting costly and inaccessible to poor sections of society. On the other hand, the institutions of higher education are lacking even minimum basic infrastructure such as teaching faculty, a library and a laboratory. It clearly shows the governments’ apathy towards education,” Hanamanth S.H., the organisation’s district president, said during the agitation.
Sneha, district vice-president of the organization, highlighted the problems that the students of Gulbarga University were facing.
“Because of the misgovernance of Gulbarga University, students face serious problems. Classes are not conducted regularly, many colleges don’t have sufficient teaching faculty, the syllabus is not completed within the stipulated time and the examinations and results are delayed inordinately. This affects the students’ prospects and sometimes spoils their careers. Students are constantly complaining about it. But, the university does not take any corrective measures,” she said.
The students later submitted a memorandum to the office of the Deputy Commissioner. Their demands included a government engineering college for Kalaburagi, assured scholarships and hostel facilities to every student, withdrawal of NEP 2020, dropping the proposal of making government educational institutions autonomous bodies and filling the vacant teaching posts.
