IMPHAL, April 4: The KCP(MC) in a press release said under its education campaign `Operation Mangal`, the party has requested all private schools in the state to reserve 15 percent seats for underprivileged students, and these students to be given free education.
It said this directive of compulsory free education is in the interest of the `weaker section, disadvantaged section and economically disadvantaged section.
The release also said the party will face anybody, or any organization which opposed this campaign with all the might in the command of the party.
The release said this operation is also a drive for the purification of education in the state.
It said by weaker section it means the numerically marginal ethnic groups living in the state. By disadvantaged section it means the marginalized section of the society, including orphans, HIV and cancer victims etc. By economically disadvantaged section it means the impoverished sections of the society.
It further said the party will reserve 10 percent of the party funds to support students belonging to these sections, so that they get education and also understand the roots and needs of their society.
The release said Kangleipak is today living the life of the colonized and place is kept as the buffer zone by India. All traditional trades and crafts have been finished off and in their place the new Indian economy has been introduced. Not only this, there is also a cultural invasion in the shape of Hindutva, it added.
This is the reason, the party has introduced its New Education Strategy, NEST, it said.
The release further said this is not a matter of interfering in the right to school education or the right to school management. However, it said it is opposed to education being reduced to just a commercial enterprise.
It said the average per capita income of Kangleipak is between Rs, 35,000 to Rs. 1,50,000 per annum. Education in private schools in Kangleipak today costs anywhere between Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 75,000. This means about Rs. 4.5 lakhs to Rs. 11 lakhs per student to complete schooling.
Over and above these will be extra expenditures in terms of private tuitions etc, and all these have become prohibitive for most under privileged families, the release said.
It is with this in view that the party has decided to launch its operation mangal, the release said.