AISA’s Parliament March Against NTA, Demands Resignation of Education Minister

The All India Students' Association (AISA) gave a call for Parliament March Against NTA on August 9, demanding accountability from the NDA Government at the Centre on the recent corruption in NEET, NET and other competitive exams! This institutionalised corruption in national level exams on a continual basis has hampered the academic prospects of lakhs of students. AISA demanded the resignation of Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan and a complete scrapping of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

Hundreds of students gathered at Jantar Mantar in defense of education from the relentless attack of commercialisation and corruption. Professor Moushumi Basu laid bare the story of the NTA and how it has surreptitiously and almost completely taken over the process of conducting admission exams from government bodies. She said "Jagdish Kumar Mamidala while he was still the VC at JNU, bulldozed his decisions through the meetings of the Academic Council and JNU's forced association with the NTA also came to light through the Minutes of one such suspicious meeting.

Raja Ram Singh, CPIML Member of Parliament, expressed his grave concerns about the NTA and its worrying role in India's higher education system. Assuring the students he said, "We have been constantly raising the issues of students, especially with respect to the entirely corrupt NTA in the Parliament and we will continue to be your voice in the Parliament. "Sudama Prasad, Member of Parliament from Arrah continued with his affirmation and said "The present government is an anti-people and antistudent force and it's decision to set up a private agency to hold national level exams is proof that it is dead set on destroying higher education."

JNUSU President Dhananjay presented JNU's example of how a university which is granted autonomy in conducting its own academic affairs like admission process sees a smoother fucntioning. He said, "The government cannot bulldoze the autonomy of universities to conduct their own admission exams. Government universities must learn from the example of JNU and demand their own entrance exams and demand a complete dismantling of the NTA."

Professor Uma Raag reiterated the support of the faculty in this fight against NTA. She said, "We, from the teaching faculty of India's government universities, extend our support to this fight against the centralisation and commercialisation of education. We, the students and teachers of this country shall see this government's nefarious designs fail."

AISA shall continue to fight for an accessible and affordable model of education. NTA as a private agency has institutionalised paper leaks and corruption and a mere reform in its chairman does nothing for our education system. We demand the complete dismantling of NTA and the immediate resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Friendship with private coaching institutes at the cost of the lives of innocent students is a blatant example of this government's anti-student nature. The families of the students who were killed by Rau IAS Coaching institute's mismanagement must be provided with dignified compensation and strict measures must be taken to rein in the loot of private coaching mafia.