MUMBAI: Azad Maidan witnessed three separate education-related protests on Monday, with demands ranging from calling a halt to the closure of schools by the state government, to alleged irregularities in the MHT-CET engineering admission process, and justice for the IIT-B student who died by suicide on September 18.
The organisation is demanding that schools in villages and remote areas remain open even if they have only one student. They are also seeking separate teachers for every class and subject. Opposing the National Education Policy (NEP), the protestors alleged that it could increase privatisation and commercialisation of education. They demanded free, quality and equal education from kindergarten to the post-graduate level. Simultaneously, students at IIT-Bombay continued their protest at the Justice Corner near the institute’s main gate.
Meanwhile, the parents of the IIT-Bombay student who died by suicide on September 18 continued their hunger strike at Azad Maidan on Monday, demand that the professor they hold responsible for their son’s death be arrested. The Shala Vachava Shikshan Vachava Manch Maharashtra (Save School, Save Education Platform Maharashtra) demanded that the government immediately withdraw decisions that could lead to the closure of schools due to low enrolment.
Sampat Desai, conveyer of the protest, said the agitation at Azad Maidan would continue until the government addresses their demands. A senior official from the school education department said the demands would require changes in policy decisions. “We are working to solve some of their demands,” he said.
The student protest entered its 17th day on Monday.
