The new National Education Policy (NEP) will not dilute reservation policy in the educational institutions, the Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal recently said to clarify the government’s intentions on the reservation.
According to the Education Minister, new efforts will be made to make education more inclusive for SCs, STs, OBCs, divyang, and other socio-economically backward groups. Apart from this, he also assured that the ongoing welfare programmes and policies are not going to end.
His comments come days after the publication of a story on CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same issue. In his letter to PM Modi, Sitaram Yechury had asked PM Modi if the NEP sought to end the reservation policy in the educational institutions.
“Some of my political friends have been raising doubts that the National Education Policy, 2020, may dilute the provisions of reservation in the educational space of the country,” Ramesh Pokhriyal, the education minister, said in a statement.
“I would like to clarify with all authority in my command that there is no such intention, as is clearly reflected in NEP. The policy affirms by the constitutional mandate of reservation enshrined in Article 15 and Article 16 of the Indian Constitution,” he is quoted as saying in a media report.
Ramesh Pokhiyal also stated, “I think it does not need any further reiteration of provisions of reservation in the policy which is already working within the framework of the Indian Constitution. It is difficult to understand the meaning of raising apprehensions after 4-5 months of the declaration of NEP, that too without any fact to support.”
Many entrance exams and appointment processes were held after the promulgation of the new NEP 2020, but no complaint of dilution of reservation has so far been received, the minister said.
“As we know the NEP-2020 emerged and evolved from rigorous consultations of all the stakeholders” students, teachers, parents, educational administrators, educationist, non-teaching staff and society as a whole, through grassroots consultations from village level to the state level, zonal and national level consultations, thematic expert consultations, scrutiny of various committees,” he said.
“That is why this NEP has emerged as a sensitive commitment for educational inclusion of all the groups of our society,” he is quoted as saying in media reports.
