Protests held throughout the country demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan and NTA to be Scrapped
Students across the country have protested against the unqualified National Testing Agency (NTA) and the incompetent Ministry of Education, demanding the resignation of the central education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. Students, who marched to the Ministry of Education (MoE) as part of a call given by the central executive committee of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), were manhandled and arrested by the Delhi Police. A similar approach has been adopted in other BJP-ruled states as well. The Uttar Pradesh police detained students who organized a protest demonstration at Lucknow University under the banner of SFI and other organizations. Massive protest demonstrations were also held in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, and other states.
This protest follows the recent UGC-NET scam and a string of controversies surrounding the agency, including paper leaks and scams in the conduct of NEET and the Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET). These incidents have not only caused immense stress and anxiety for students but have also jeopardized their futures.
We remind the BJP government that they cannot silence students’ protests using the police and other repressive mechanisms. SFI demands the immediate scrapping of the NTA and the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan from the post of Minister of Education.
SFI is putting forward five specific demands to the Union government to uphold the standards of education in India.
- The NTA system should be scrapped
- The Union Education Minister must resign.
- Students who gave recent NET and NEET exam deserve compensation, which should be met by the union government.
- Roll back the recently adopted system of mandatory NET score for PhD admissions.
- Withdraw from the attempts to replace existing admission procedures with centralised entrance tests, thereby nurturing entrance mafias in the country.
The Students’ Federation of India will continue to organise struggles by itself and jointly along with others, raising the above demands until they are met by the union government.
Released by
V P Sanu (President SFI)
Mayukh Biswas (General Secretary, SFI)