Draft UGC curriculum 'unscientific, primitive’; SFI to hold 3-day nationwide protests

The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has announced a protest in colleges and universities against the Learning Outcomes-based Curriculum Framework (LOCF) released by the University Grants Commission (UGC) from September 23 to 25. Dubbing the framework “primitive” and “unscientific”, the students’ body said that it will submit memorandums to the vice-chancellors of universities and education ministers of various states to oppose the LOCF.

SFI called upon the students across the country to join the dharnas against the “destruction of education”.

The student association argued that the article 51A(h) of the Constitution makes it fundamental for the citizens to develop a scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform. By injecting unscientific and illogical concepts in education, UGC is trying to push the RSS agenda through the backdoor, it alleged.

SFI took the inclusion of Veer Savarkar’s book among the learning list about the freedom movement as an example of the agenda, which, it alleged, is intended to mislead students from the real history of the freedom struggle.

Also read UGC’s draft mathematics curriculum will ‘cripple generations of students’; experts demand withdrawal

The students further termed the draft LOCF as part of a “larger politics” of the new education policy – NEP – introduced by the Bharatiya Janata PArty (BJP). Expressing its determination to oppose the framework, the group said, “SFI will continue the protests against the unscientific LOCF and the destructive NEP. The attempts to paralyse the scientific temper of campuses will be met with stern protests throughout the country.”