Shuvajit Sarkar
The pandemic continues to be a threat to the daily course of life in various parts of the world. As part of the outbreak, we, as a generation, got to witness many things for the first time. Masks and sanitisers have today become an integral part of our day-to-day life. Several people have lost everything and millions have been ‘martyred’. Now the question arises – would be why people who died of Covid-19 be termed as ‘martyrs’? I believe so, as they too must have fought against this virus and most of them, frontline health workers and others, died treating the affected.
From the perspective of a student, the most devastating consequence of the pandemic was the shift in the mode of teaching — from classrooms to online. In the recent months in India, many progressive students’ organisations have demanded the reopening of universities, access to campuses, hostels and to generally restore the education system to normal. However, as said many times before, the state machinery has been beyond reluctant about it. We have witnessed how assembly elections, festivals, and even the transport and communication system could be arranged and organised, but no one has been paying any heed to the issues of the student community, and therefore, the country’s education. In fact, what’s worse is that this shift to online education is not merely a matter of COVID-19, but this “locked-up” situation has been used by the state to take drastic steps.
CAA Protests
In 2019, massive protests against NRC NPR CAA arose across the country. People with no direct political affiliation came out onto the streets and resisted the draconian laws of the government, with the significant slogan “BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao” (Remove BJP, Save the Nation). Most importantly, the students and youth took a commendable role in the resistance movement. Even otherwise ‘apolitical’ students came out onto the streets, shouted slogans and made posters against the ruling state, and according to many, it felt as though it was the “second freedom struggle” of the country. Unions were formed rapidly and students were at the forefront of organising people across the country and unionising them. Students mobilised themselves primarily in university spaces. The protests also gave the public the opportunity to know the actual history of our country and the masses discarded RSS’s propaganda. India witnessed a unity of students and teachers where both shouted slogans together.
National Education Policy (NEP)
The NEP is a classic example of privatisation of education, by which the state directly and shamelessly propagates the idea that one has to “buy” education. If less number of people have access to education, then there will be less people for jobs in the organised sector. The digital divide has led to a devastating situation in the country, where thousands of students have been forced to drop out of schools and colleges. Many research scholars are unable to carry on their research as their campuses are closed. SFI’s demand has been to open the campuses in a phased manner — starting with laboratories, libraries, followed by classrooms. Recent studies have shown that the pandemic has worsened the academic atmosphere and many have been pushed to ill mental health. Although some institutions have given access to to laboratories, it will not be useful enough unless there is a government decision for academic activities to be regularised.
In West Bengal too, the state government is refuses to do this. Students are panic-stricken due to the mishandling of the situation by the state machinery. If festivals can be organised all over the country, why not open campuses?
What’s the significance of a classroom? It is where we develop our communitarian approach to life, which in simple terms means, that we are made to realise that there is life beyond our individual selves. Ideas of collectivism were nurtured within us, when we wore the same uniform and learnt to share our food with others, in schools. We learned to live, study and perform together. Since the beginning of the so-called unplanned lockdown, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has been stressing on the importance of classroom education, which it believes is the only way towards a truly progressive education.
Online education is a project to break the communitarian idea of society and is deliberately being done to dismantle the unity among progressive and dissenting students and teachers. The right-wing, as a result of facing protests all over the country, know quite well that once students get access to campuses, it will be difficult for them to restrict them from nurturing their ideas in canteens, common rooms, union rooms, libraries, hostels, laboratories and playgrounds. We are way past the time to simply laugh or lightly criticise all these matters, as the government is indeed going on implementing mindless agricultural, environment and education policies, with no debate or discussion. It’s time to reclaim our campuses.
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