On 18th march,
Chandigarh police lathi-charged protesting students to suppress their struggle
against Fee hike. The Students were taken to PS sec. – 11 and were brutally
tortured, for opposing the entry of police in University Campus. The police
claiming to be responsible to maintain law and order, showed what ‘Law &
order’ really means. Police while registering fake cases to suppress dissent,
mocked the very constitution that claims the country to be the Worlds’ Largest
Democracy.
The question is why university
resorted to such measures instead of solving the issue?
The whole matter was
concerned with fee hike, against which SFS started a chain hunger strike since
24th February
that was converted to indefinite hunger strike after no response from
authorities. As the authorities tried to suppress the struggle, the struggle
fueled by the students’ unity forced the authorities to bow.
The university authorities gave
the argument that fee is hiked due to rising deficit. The central government
will only give grant to university in case if they mobilize their resources
themselves and hike at least 8-10% fees every year. Instead of opposing the
government, university is increasing the load on the students by hiking their
fees.Instead of making education a
right, government is making it a commodity, and is running away from its
responsibilities of ‘social welfare’.
To understand the whole issue
let’s have a look at the education related policies:
The formal education system was
introduced by Macaulay for creating a class of persons who are “Indian in
blood and color, but English in taste, opinion, morals and in intellect…” to
serve the interests of Britishers. Today also, our education system, in spite
of liberating the masses from reactionary ideas and dominance, is continuing on
the same lines. To understand the education policy in India “National Policy
Of Education” (1986) is a turning point which supported the funding of the
institutions by both public and private sector as well as ‘voluntary
agencies’, thus paved the way for commercialization and privatization of
education. It also proposed a ‘National Core Curriculum’ under which the
rich diverse culture and languages of our people were sacrificed. NPE also
purposed the banning of elections to further suppress the voice of dissent.
Instead of universal education, the concept of ‘model’ schools was introduced
which gave rise to the double standard education.
The 1990 Jomtien Conference
paved the way for the World Bank and other international funding agencies to
extend loans for India (and other countries) in primary education in India
(including other countries) thus interfering with the future of children. Later
in 1994, the World Bank document, ‘higher education: the lessons of experience’
(1994), which purposed the concept of ‘cost recovery’ for universities and
colleges and resource mobilization by other methods. This was seen in
Swaminathan Committee in very cheap form like maintenance fee, gardening fee,
lending of premises of the institutions such as auditorium, class rooms,
playgrounds etc. The very next year, for school education DPEP (District
Primary Education Programme) was introduced by government, which was funded by
World Bank. In this way government started reducing its responsibility from the
school education.
Notwithstanding in 1999, the
Anand Krishnan committee and Mehmood-ur-Rehman committee proposed 5 to 6
fold fee hikes and illogically justified it 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. Market-friendly courses
were introduced and private investment was allowed in these courses. The
private colleges and even universities funded by big corporate were 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. Later in 2005, UPA governments’ commerce ministry under the
pressure of WTO under GATS, recommended that “service negotiations could be used as an opportunity to invite foreign universities to set up
campuses in India, thereby saving billions of dollars for the students
travelling abroad”. Thereby removing
barriers and providing flexible environment to such universities for
investment.
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.
Such reforms are seriously
affecting the society as now even the middle class is being 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 3% of GDP is spent on education in contrast to 10% as recommended by
Yashpal committee. In 2013-14 budget total of Rs. 65,867 crore was allotted to
education sector, whereas in the name of reducing fiscal deficit (under
pressure from international rating agencies) the expenses were reduced by 18%
but this year government distributed packages worth Rs. 25,000 crore to
corporates, and this is a minute part of subsidies being given to corporates.
As we go deep down to further
understand the education related policies, a rather questionable picture comes
forward. On one side in a simple manner, the solution of every problem is
sought through the expanse of education whereas on the other side government
policies are making education a commodity, thereby making it out of reach of
the majority of the people. Even today when the election fever is running
throughout the country, all the political parties are trying to woo the voters
and crores of rupees are being spent on propaganda activities building air
castles of future development. These basic questions are deliberately being
ignored or are just being discussed at a very surficial level. The
participation of people in the democracy and decision making is limited to just
casting vote once every five years, to choose among the lotus, hand, balance,
broom, elephant etc. When we look at the economic policies of all these, we see
no major difference among them rather all seem to unite at the neo-liberal
model of development standing up for measures for further privatization which
are further guided by the international agencies such as World Bank. Narendra
Modi who very loudly proclaims to be a nationalist has hired APCO (a US based
corporation responsible for fake propaganda justifying the US imperialist
attack on the Iraq) for his election propaganda. Even AAP which is
projecting itself as an alternative, is in essence nothing but continuation of
the same neo-liberal agenda which has put the Indian economy in such a drastic
situation. All the parties under the garb of ‘good governance’, instead of
basing its policies for social welfare, are opening way for the further
privatization.
Especially, today when the
world economy is trapped in crisis, international financial institutions are
trying to get themselves out of this crisis. In such a scenario, we generally
witness more cuts in the subsidies and lessening of expenditure on schemes of
public welfare and more burden is put upon already distressed people. As
history teaches us, fascism rises in such conditions to suppress any dissenting
or resisting voice of the people. The present elections in our country are
also a projection of such scenario where without much discussion on policies
and basic questions, two or three individuals are being projected as some
‘saviours’ who with their magical wands would save the country.
Friends in such a situation it
amply becomes clear that the real alternative lies in the path shown by our
legendary revolutionary leaders such as Bhagat Singh, who teach us to struggle
against the rotten socio-economic and political structure as a whole which is
responsible for the pauperization of masses and lay foundations for such a
society where there would be freedom and opportunities for all to develop one’s
self and environment. The recent struggle against the fee hike gives us lesson
that the imperialist attack on our education and society could only be resisted
by our united struggle against the reactionary Indian State.