AISA claims FYUP ‘anti-student’, demands immediate rollback

All India Students Association (AISA) opposed Lucknow University’s implementation of the exclusionary New Education Policy alleging that it is anti-student

All India Students Association (AISA) opposed Lucknow University’s implementation of the exclusionary New Education Policy alleging that it is anti-student. Lucknow University has planned to implement the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) for all the undergraduate courses.

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“The New Education Policy-2020 has been rejected by the student community as it has proved to be anti-student and anti-academic, said Shivendra Tripathi, LU unit convenor, All India Students Association (AISA).

“The infrastructure of Lucknow University is already in shambles. A news report of July 2020 states that six out of 43 departments in the century-old university are operating with a single or no faculty. One-third of the total teaching posts out of 517 are vacant,” claims AISA activist.

“At present, at varsity, the teacher-student ratio is 1:39/1:60 at UG and PG level against the 1:20 laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Contrary to this, the university has no proper plan to deal with the current crisis of infrastructure and the introduction of FYUP will worsen the already existing crisis,” he said.

The vice-chancellor’s interview of boasting the FYUP as the idea to open the minds of the students by exposing them to a wide range of subjects through classroom teaching, projects and practical, vocational training, co-curricular activities and internship seem impractical, illusionary and just as one more ‘Jumla’ to the aspiring student community, they said.

The four-year undergraduate programme is not student-oriented but anti-student as it adds a financial burden on students coming from economically weaker sections of society. Multiple entry/exit in higher education essentially means that only students with good financial condition will be able to complete their FYUP whereas the poorer students will have to settle for a diploma, AISA activist claimed.

“The much-touted multiple entry/exit programme celebrated as a paradigm shift by NEP is nothing but a promotion of graded inequality. Multiple entries and exit point will create confusion and discrimination,” he said.

“It will create further social division and discrimination in society. Thus the proposed four-year undergraduate programme systematically and legitimately forces students from marginalized communities to exit the system, allowing the most privileged students to continue to have a perfect monopoly over all its resources. The current FYUP of the NEP is a disaster, and as we have seen in the past, the students and teacher community of Delhi University have resisted and rejected FYUP and compelled the DU administration to revoke the flawed FYUP,” he said.