Page 36 - EducationWorld September 2020

Cover Story

PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN INDIA REPORT 2020

BRILLIANT CASE

FOR THE DEFENCE

Against the backdrop of pervasive confusion about the character and
role of private schools in the national development effort, this detailed
unprecedented report demolishes widely disseminated myths of Left-
liberal academics and shallow media about private K-12 education

Dilip Thakore

T HE NEW NATIONAL EDUCATION Pol- monitor the country’s pre-primary to Ph D education in-

stitutions, especially private schools and higher education
icy 2020, presented to the nation by
institutions which are anathema to them.
Union education minister Dr. Ramesh
The ideologues of the RSS have silently welcomed the
Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and his predeces-
sor Prakash Javadekar on July 29, has
new education policy because comprehensive government
received great acclamation from the
academy and rewrite Indian history proclaiming the glories
Left-dominated India academy, and
from the right-wing Rashtriya Sway- control of education clears the way for them to infiltrate the
of pre-Mughal Hindu kings, demonise Muslim rule over the
amsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor organisa- subcontinent during 16-18th centuries, and in the fullness
tion of the BJP government at the Centre and in 12 states of time, revise the Constitution of India to establish a Hindu
of the Indian Union. Four years in the making, NEP 2020 rashtra in which the country’s 200 million Muslims will
which comes after an interregnum of 34 years — the previ- become second class citizens, as Hindus are in neighbour-
ous National Education Policy was presented to the nation ing Pakistan. For this project to succeed, private education
in 1986 (reviewed in 1992) — has achieved this remark- institutions have to be strictly monitored and controlled
able balancing act by reinforcing the neta-babu (politician- by the State.
bureaucrat/educrat) control and command architecture of Trapped between politicians and ideologues of the Left
post-independence India’s education system. and Right singing hosannas of NEP 2020, is India’s edu-
The academy dominated by communists and fellow- cated middle class, including the intelligentsia, liberal aca-
travelling Left liberals have acclaimed NEP 2020 because demics, the media and educated upper middle class, aka
it multiplies the number of government policy formulation the establishment, which shapes and moulds public opin-
and regulatory agencies to direct and closely supervise and ion. Bombarded by continuous socialist propaganda and

36 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020