Around 600 teaching and non-teaching staff members in Mumbai participated in the farmers march on Monday. Various teacher groups raised their voice against the implementation of the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as well as showed support to farmer and labour unions fighting against the new laws.
The teachers highlighted how NEP violates the constitutional mandates of the reservation policy and Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act. “The new Act will break the present structure of education and could also result in the closure of thousands of schools and colleges. Not only will this lead to high drop-out rates, but it’ll also push more teachers and non-teaching staff in ad-hoc and contractual appointments,”one of the teacher’s organisation said.
A host of teacher unions – Shikshak Bharti, Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (MFUCTO), Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union (BUCTU) and some other teachers organisation came under the common umbrella of Joint Platform of Teachers. Together they issued a joint statement stating, “The All India Organisation of Teachers and non-teaching employees of education institutes in the country have expressed their solidarity with this struggle. A nation-wide protest of all trade unions was called for, starting January 23, and we too joined the struggle on Monday.”
The main demand of the teachers in Mumbai is that the government repeal the three new farm and labour laws and also withdraw NEP.
“The fact that the Governor has refused to give us time to discuss such important matters is being highly criticised by all unions,” a teacher said during the protest.
Source: Hindustan Times
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