By Syed Ahmed, for TwoCircles.net,
Imphal: Campus Front of India, Manipur State, celebrated National Education Day on 11th November, 2011 at the Lilong Haoreibi College Auditorium, in Lilong, to mark the 123rd birth anniversary of the first Education Minister of Independent India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
The celebration was held as a part of the nation-wide awareness campaign, “Education for all,” organized by the Campus Front of India. The theme for the function was “Save Public Education.”
The President of Campus Front of India, Manipur State, Rafiuddin, Lecturers of Lilong Haoreibi College, Dr. Syed Ahmed and Abdul Hei, and Founder of Five Star English High School, Alhaj Zakir Hussain graced the function as presidium members.
Giving the key-note address, Rafiuddin said, “Today public education system in India is facing a great challenge. Government has adopted the neo-liberal policies on education, where the government gradually withdraws its responsibility of providing free education and allows private sector to do the job. Private sector takes education as a profit-making business thereby creating an extremely exploitative system where education becomes the privilege of the rich alone, thus creating a major hurdle for a large section of the Indian people struggling for socio-economic empowerment.”
“Quality of education, security of the students and democratic atmosphere in the campuses are the major victims of neo-liberal policies. But public education is the first and foremost casualty. So ‘Save Public Education’ becomes one of the most important slogans of our times. We have to realize the vital role of public education in the empowerment of the marginalized sections of our country,” Rafiuddin added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Syed Ahmed stated the contributions of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in the field of education is immense. He said, “Maulana Azad was a great leader of India’s freedom struggle and an eminent scholar. He was also a champion of communal harmony. As the first Education Minister of India he contributed to the laying of a strong foundation for education in India. He emphasized on educating rural poor and girls. He gave thrust to adult literacy, universal primary education, free and compulsory for all children up to the age of 14, girls’ education, and diversification of secondary education and vocational training. The commitment made by Maulana Azad to provide modern, secular and universal education is relevant even today.”
“During his tenure as Education Minister he established the University Grants Commission (UGC), the academies – Sangeet Natak Academy, Sahitya Academy and Lalit Kala Academy, the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and launched Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR),” he further added. He also expressed dismay that the State government has failed to remember and honor the visionary of India. Abdul Hei spoke on the literary works of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
Addressing the gathering, Zakir Hussain said that the some of the programmes taken up by the State government in the education sector, especially Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), fail to reach the Muslim inhabited areas.
The function concluded after taking the following resolutions: 1) demand for inclusion of National Education Day in the holiday list, 2) demand for implementing the recommendations of the Sachar Committee and Ranganath Mishra Commission, and reservation of 10% of the posts or seats in employment and education for the Muslims, 4) demand to make education free for Muslim students studying from Class I to X, 5) and ask the State government to clear the pending scholarships for the minority students.