| SFS
invites all to attend its 1st conference with the slogan to “RISE
AGAINST PRIVATISATION AND COMMERCIALISATION OF EDUCATION” and make it
successful.
DATE: 19th Feb, 2013 TIME: 11 am VENUE: English Auditorium, PU, Chandigarh
|
“RISE
AGAINST PRIVATISATION AND COMMERCIALISATION
OF EDUCATION”
Now-a- days we see a rising discontent among people as the ‘promises’ of
rapid development made by the neo
liberal policies in ‘90s have never been realized and the dreams of millions
shattered with the absolute ‘failure’. Almost every section of our society is
suffering. The peasants are committing
suicides, the workers are forced to starve on meager wages, the women are
living under drastic conditions, the dalits are still subjected to live life in
undermined conditions and face discrimination even in ‘respectable’ jobs and
educational institutes, the youth is wandering jobless and have been pushed to
lead a life of despair, killing a persons’ own creativity and the condition of
the society is deteriorating day-by-day. And still the ruling class continues
with its anti-people policies that favor a small privileged section of the society
and exploit the broader masses of the society. Fed-up of such rule, the people
have come forward and have shown their discontent through recent demonstrations.
But the ruthless suppression of such democratic struggles by the state is a
sign of shrinking democratic space. With the curtailment of fundamental rights
it appears that we are on a way to an authoritarian rule. No doubt the educated
youth of our country are willful and capable of changing the society but there
is need to identify and address the root cause of the problems and build an
alternative.
One of the issues that require our
prime attention and need to be addressed is our education system. Since
education is necessarily an emancipatory process linked with the liberation of
masses. It should emancipate individuals, groups, nations and nationalities
from superstition and dominance. But education system of India seems to
disagree with this phenomenon. It has always remained a distant dream for the
broader masses. The origins of our formal education system dates back to the
British times. (Prior to that, there was an indigenous system of education with
formal schools for Brahmins, upper castes and the mercantile classes. Hardly
any women or the dalit people received education.) It’s a well known fact that
during the mid nineteenth century Macaulay education system was introduced for
creating a class of persons who are “Indian in blood and colour, but English in
taste, opinion, morals and in intellect…” to run their administrative apparatus.
Indian ruling classes have also continued on the same lines after the
‘independence’.
The National Policy on Education (1986) was introduced with the
concept of ‘model’ schools to create islands of excellence amidst the ocean of illiteracy.
The policy also supported the funding of the institutions by both public and
private sector as well as ‘voluntary agencies’, thus opening up the educational
institutes for private hands. It also
proposed a ‘national core curriculum’ to be imposed in schools to let the
centre govt. exercise its fascist and authoritarian grip over the country. In
this manner the rich diverse culture and languages of our people were
sacrificed at the altar of Hindu fascists.
The 2nd generation educational ‘reforms’ were proposed in ‘90s. Committees like Swaminathan committee and Punnayya
committee proposed the resource mobilization in technical education by ‘cost
recovery’ from students or to say in layman language hike in fees and
introduction of ‘payment seats’. It was
seen even in very cheap form like maintenance fee, gardening fee, lending of
premises of the institutions such as auditorium, classrooms, playgrounds etc . Later,
the World Bank (in its document on Higher education, 1994) proposed that spending
of public funds on higher education should be reduced i.e. privatize it. Very
obediently in 1997 Ministry of Finance stated that “education beyond elementary
level also falls outside the ambit of merit category”. The proposal simply meant
withdrawal of state funding and privatization in all forms in higher
education. Further standards were
proposed like NAAC to judge the performance of colleges and universities or
rather to allow the institutes with high ranking to get an autonomous status
and raise their fees.
In 1999, the Anand Krishnan
committee and Mehmood-ur-Rehman committee proposed 5 to 6 fold fee hikes and illogically justified saying “higher
fees gives sobriety to the system and to the institutions and is also helpful
in maintaining law and order”. While on the other hand, somewhat ‘sincere’
recommendation of Kothari commission, which urged the govt. to invest 6% of the
GDP in education, was completely ignored. The NDA govt. on the eve of the
century continued on the path with gradual withdrawal of the funding of higher
education. The frequent expenditures in the universities and colleges have to
be raised through cost-recovery and other sources. Market-friendly courses were
introduced and private investment was allowed in these courses. The private
colleges and even universities funded by big corporate to be started. The NDA
government also manipulated the subject matters especially history in the name ‘Bhartiyakaran’
of the education, defeating the very purpose of the scientific and rational
education.
In Ambani-Birla report (2000),
these two industrialists asked for immediate privatization of several segments
of higher education. In view of this they wanted a legislation “banning any
form of political activity on campuses of universities and educational
institutions”. In its continuity, the Lyngdoh committee also recommended harsh
restrictions on political activities in educational campuses as it was
necessary to create an ‘open environment’ that would encourage the private
sector to invest in higher education as the World Bank in 2002 suggested in its
report “Constructing Knowledge Societies”. It suggested that such rules should
be formed that facilitate establishment of new institutions, outlining minimum
quality requirements and did not constitute any barriers to entry for
investment for private investors.
Such reforms are seriously affecting the society as now even the middle
class has been denied the opportunities for education due to rising costs under
policies of the privatization and commercialization of education. The oppressed
section such as dalits and scheduled tribes, who earlier have been somewhat
benefited from the reservation, are again being marginalized due to the
increased costs of education. Either the educational institutions have been
privatized or only the self financed courses are being introduced in the public
institutions. Less than 2% of GDP is spent on education in contrast to 10% as
recommended by Yashpal committee. There is much spending of public funds for
‘defence’ and stimulus packages to big corporates, while the primary sectors
like education and health are totally ignored.
The public education plays a great role in nation building, but the
education system in India produces professionals which are best suited to serve
the needs of MNCs and are divorced from the needs of development of our country
(i.e. benefit of the masses).
An irrational marks oriented exam-system has given rise to intense
competition and the education has become a highly priced commodity (sold in
coaching centers and private educational institutions) and only a few can
afford it. A few who do manage to get a degree, wander jobless or get highly
underpaid jobs with no job security at all.
Now the UPA government has been regularly introducing policies on dictation
of Imperialist Masters accelerating the privatization and commercialization of
education. It has introduced six education related bills stressing for
centralization of all aspects of higher education(With this single-window
system, the foreign educational institutes will find it easier to start their
‘shops’ in India), promoting FDI in education, setting up an alternative
dispute redressal mechanism giving an easy way-out to private universities ,
mandatory accreditation of all educational institutes creating National
Authority for Registration and Accreditation of Higher Educational Institutes(
NARAHEI). Under Universities for Innovation and Research Bill, the universities
will be started under MoAs, with govt. arranging lands, contribution to capital
investment, grants for supporting research but afterwards these universities
will be outside the jurisdiction of CAG, there will be no member of govt. in
board of governors and therefore no control over these universities.
Higher and primary education is juxtaposed against each other in an ugly
manner. On one hand for ‘providing’ primary education it is introducing Right
to Education and while on the other hand it is withdrawing funds from higher
education.