UGC’s draft curriculum framework is primitive, unscientific: Students Federation of India

Terming the draft Learning Outcomes-based Curriculum Framework (LOCF) released for nine subjects recently by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as primitive and unscientific, the Left-leaning Students’ Federation of India (SFI) said it would hold a protest march to the UGC’s offices and regional centres throughout the country on Wednesday (August 27, 2025). On Monday (August 25, 2025) and Tuesday (August 26, 2025), students associated with them would burn the LOCF draft on campuses in Central and State university centres, SFI leaders Adarsh M. Saji and Srijan Bhattacharyya said in a statement in New Delhi on Saturday (August 23, 2025).

“The LOCF on chemistry starts with a salutation to Saraswati, while the commerce curriculum suggests colleges to teach Kautilya’s Arthashastra. V.D. Savarkar’s ‘The Indian War of Independence’ has found a place in the reading list for the course on ‘Indian Struggle for Independence’. This is an attempt to push the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] agenda through education,” the SFI’s statement said. 

The statement added that, as per Article 51A(h) of the Constitution, it is a fundamental duty of citizens to develop a scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform. “This attempt by the UGC is intended to intensify saffronisation and propagate an unscientific temper in higher education,” the SFI said. 

On the inclusion of Savarkar’s book in the learning list on the freedom movement, the SFI said the move was intended to mislead students from the real history of the freedom struggle. “The students and youth of this country have no need to study the history of the freedom struggle from books written by those who betrayed the freedom struggle,” the statement said.