Opp targets govt over paper leaks and NCERT textbook revisions in Lok Sabha

In their speeches, the BJP members spoke about the National Education Policy-2020 and said that focus in the Union Budget on skilling, entrepreneurship, innovation and employment will help the country become a developed nation and a solution provider to the world.

Congress’s Jawed accused the BJP of getting power by flaring anti-Dalit, anti-poor, anti-Muslim, and anti-student sentiments. The Kishanganj MP said the Muslim community has contributed “as much as anybody else”. On the issue of paper leaks, the MP said, “Outside Parliament, test papers are getting leaked and inside Parliament, the roof is leaking…”

TMC MP Pratima Mondal hit out at the government over “deletion of chapters on significant Muslim rulers” and omitting reference to 2002 Gujarat riots from the NCERT curriculum. She said such revisions pose a threat to “children’s intellectual integrity”.

Mondal also said that in 2018, how the then Minister of State for Education Satya Pal Singh had declared Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution “scientifically wrong”.

BJP member from Puri Sambit Patra accused the Opposition parties of “shedding crocodile tears” in the name of reservation and claimed that quotas for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes during the Congress regime ended up in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University. “The Congress will have to answer,” said Patra, also claiming that there was a significant increase in the budget allocation for the education sector.

Praising the government for the provisions in the Budget for youths, BJP MP Tejasavi Surya said there has been significant developments in the education sector in the 10 years. He said that while Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has accused the BJP and the government of being against Dalits, tribals and OBCs, it was Congress-led governments that didn’t implement the Mandal Commission report for 10 years. “If any party is anti-SC, ST, OBC, it is the Congress,” he said.

Pradhan said the Opposition should not create fear among the Muslim community over an alleged lack of equal opportunities, and that the government did not discriminate between citizens.

Pradhan quoted some data to show that Muslims and other minority groups were being given equal opportunities in education. The Union minister said: “Don’t spread fear among Muslims, this will not last long.”

Pradhan noted that the transition ratio from class 5 to 6 among Muslim students stood at 89.2, which was close to the national average of 93.2. “The Aligarh Muslim University was set up in 1875 and no female vice-chancellor was appointed in all these years. It happened during our tenure that a woman professor who studied at the same university was appointed as vice-chancellor and it was done on the basis of merit,” he said.

“Earlier, they would say that you appoint people with RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) affiliation… She is not from RSS… If a Muslim woman progresses on the basis of merit, we should be proud,” Pradhan said, adding that the higher education Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) rose by 32 per cent in 2021-22 over 2014-15.

“The transition ratio from upper primary to secondary school, which refers to students moving from classes 8 to 9, the national average is 88.8 and among Muslims it is 82.2,” he said, adding that the need was to encourage competency-based education and the new NEP — a step forward. “The NEP is not just a 60-page policy document. It is a philosophical element for the reconstruction of India…,” he said.