New Education Policy
I read Rohit Dhankar’s piece on the proposed Indian New Education Policy (The Hindu, August 10) which has been codified as Knowledge-based Economy and Society (KBES) with added interest in Indian past religious history. Rohit has been very critical and analytical in his write-up about such KBES. He deserves appreciation for his straight-jacket remarks on such matter of public interest.
Rohit concludes, “one can say that it is a policy to gear education to producing pliable citizens who work as the government says, believe it, obey it, produce but do not think and do not question. It is a policy to craft an education system that is to dumb down the citizenry. It is time for India again to remember that a just and functioning democracy squarely depends on citizens who can think clearly and critically, and who can act on their convictions in the face of risks. Democracies are not sustained by obedient productive units in so-called knowledge-based economies. However, that is precisely what our new NEP 2016 envisages”.
I think Rohit’s observations are equally applicable to the present education exercises prevailing in Bangladesh which is potentially based on past-dreams slightly modified by Education Minister Nahid with a non-religious colour or mix.
Nayan Das Munshi
Laxmi Bazar, Dhaka
