Thread by @rumlolarum

A Dalit student I taught 2 years ago was working part time as a Swiggy delivery executive. He was raised by a single mother who took loans to put him through an undergraduate degree.

On the day he wrote his final exam, he had a confirmed job in security management at Bengaluru Airport. They'd told him he could come whenever he wanted. But his mother insisted he finish his degree so he could have something to fall back on, in case this job didn't stick.

He had several supplementary exams to give which he is still clearing one by one while continuing to hold that job.

Not exactly a great place to be in but in the end, he will have a triple major degree. He can leave the airport security job and apply for IAS if he so wishes or teach or do law. The key word here is 'wishes'
Although not ideal, he still has a choice.

What the #NEP will do, if it comes, is take away that choice from the student. It will offer students multiple exit options at various points in the four-year degree.

Which means that in his second semester, my student will have the option of leaving the course with a diploma so he can continue delivering food when he should be studying.

The current system doesn't allow such an exit option. He just HAS to get a degree which might be cumbersome at present but will benefit him later.

Also, at the end of 4 years, for all that multidisciplinary talk it does, the #NEP doesn't promise the Dalit student any choice to make a respectable exit from college.

Before throwing aimless bombs, the task force of #NEP should perhaps first ask itself why a Dalit student must deliver food and do assignments simultaneously. What has it done to ensure that a Dalit student gets to call herself a student?
#StopNEP

If the #NEP wants to change lives indeed, it should probably also think about single mothers from the Dalit and Adivasi communities who dream of their children someday getting a degree. Must they now struggle for 4 years before they see this day?

Despite the very little help some departments receive from colleges/states, they are doing what they can to keep classrooms diverse. We can understand if the #NEP can't see that, but is it too much to ask that they leave us alone?

Has the task force bothered to look into adding multiple entry points for Dalit students? Or are they happy to not have them enter college campuses?

Does the #NEP task force have any idea how many Dalit students make it to the classroom, and if they do, how many of them graduate?

The #NEP is a modern excuse to keep Manusmriti alive. Threatening to take serious action against colleges for not implementing the #NEP DURING A FUCKING PANDEMIC only makes your case weaker.

The #NEP spews the word multidisciplinary as though it was responsible for its creation. The only thing the #NEP should make claims for at this point is the word multi-illusionary.