New Delhi, Aug 19: The Congress on Wednesday asked its four chief ministers to prepare a report on the reforms needed in the education and examination system in their respective states and submit it to party president Mallikarjun Kharge within a month.
The party also announced that the ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ programme will be held in nearly 800 cities across the country, and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will participate in several cities.
The programme has already been held in Kota, Dehradun and Prayagraj and is scheduled in Pune on Saturday.
This was stated after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at Indira Bhawan, with Kharge chairing it and top leaders, including former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, attending it.
Congress chief ministers A Revanth Reddy (Telangana), V D Satheesan (Kerala), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), and D K Shivakumar (Karnataka) also participated in the meeting.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Ramesh said Kharge and Rahul Gandhi has asked the four chief ministers to compile a report on the reforms needed in the education and examination system in their respective states within a month.
“Against the backdrop of the environment, they will submit their reports to the Congress president,” he said.
Sources said Gandhi stressed that the chief ministers should prepare this report in consultation with education experts and all stakeholders with the objective of improving the education and examination system in their respective states to secure the future of students.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, Kharge accused the Narendra Modi government of “destroying” the future of students and asserted that the time has come for the Congress to formulate a comprehensive ‘Education-to-Employment Roadmap’ for the youth.
“With the objective of preparing for the future, the time has come for the Congress to prepare a clear, comprehensive, and time-bound ‘Education-to-Employment Roadmap’ for the youth,” Kharge said.
In a resolution passed at the meeting, the CWC said it is deeply distressed by the plight of the youth.
The younger generation is facing disappointment and betrayal from the Modi government at every turn, the party alleged.
“Over the past decade, paper leaks have assumed epidemic proportions, with at least 152 cases of paper leaks reported since 2014. The recent cancellation and re-conduct of the NEET examination alone resulted in at least 26 student suicides, while more than 90 other students have lost their lives for similar reasons over the past five years,” the CWC resolution said.
“Young people are bearing the greatest brunt of unemployment, and with 12 years having passed and opportunities shrinking, their circumstances continue to worsen. Unemployment among educated youth has now become a crisis of systemic government failure,” it said.
The unemployment rate among graduates and postgraduates is even higher than among those without formal education, it pointed out.
The CWC strongly condemned the “arbitrary and brutal repression unleashed by the Modi government against student movements – including attacks on young women and children, the use of electric shock batons, tear gas, pellet guns and AK-47s, and the blatant censorship of voices of dissent”.
“The refusal of the Prime Minister and Home Minister to face Parliament and answer for these serious failures demonstrates not only their cowardice in India’s democratic history, but also their complete indifference and disregard for the future of the country,” the CWC said.
The resolution lauded Rahul Gandhi for actively raising the voices and concerns of India’s youth through the dedicated ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign, which it claimed was is receiving an overwhelmingly positive response.
“He (Gandhi) has also written to the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, urging him to adopt a sensitive and just approach towards protesting students. He has consistently made it clear that India’s education system cannot be held hostage to privatisation, centralisation and the regressive shackles of the RSS-BJP,” the CWC said.
The CWC also noted that sustained pressure from student groups and the united Opposition – both inside and outside Parliament – compelled the Education Minister to resign.
