Digvijaya Singh accuses govt of pushing people through ‘backdoor’ in educational institutions

New Delhi, Mar 11 (PTI) Congress MP Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday accused the government of pushing people associated with the ruling party’s ideology in educational institutions through the “backdoor” by only hiring contractual faculty and not making regular appointments against thousands of vacancies in central universities and schools.

Participating in a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Education in the Rajya Sabha, Singh also sought to say that the New Education Policy (NEP) will make education a costlier affair for students belonging to financially poor families.

He said that when a new education policy was announced in 1986, there was a discussion on it in Parliament, but no such debate took place on NEP 2020.

The veteran Congress MP further said while 90,000 government schools have closed down between 2014-2024, over 50,000 new private schools have come up. This means that students who were studying in now-closed schools will be forced to join private schools and pay fee, he noted.

In his speech, Singh said in Navodaya Vidyalayas, there are more than 4,000 vacancies of teachers while the number is nearly 7,400 in Kendriya Vidyalayas.

More than 3,200 teachers have been appointed on a contractual basis in Navodaya Vidyalayas, and over 6,700 in Kendriya Vidyalayas, he added.

The Congress MP pointed out that more than 5,400 faculty posts are vacant in central universities and there are contractual appointments there.

“This is a clever way of getting in people with the ruling party’s ideology through the backdoor in the educational institutions,” he said while flagging the issue of vacancies being filled through contractual appointments.

The Congress MP further said that while the Prime Minister talks about ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Prayas’, but does only focus on the development of a select few.

“In education, you will see efforts are being made to give communal colours in curriculum, and discrimination in appointments,” Singh added.

He also flagged that SC, ST and OBCs were not getting their rightful representation in the teaching faculty.

Singh also made several suggestions which should be included in the NEP.