All India Convention on Education

Massive March to Parliament planned on December 2

An All-India Convention on Education was held in New Delhi on 13th August 2010. Organizations of Students, Teachers, University Employees, Youth, People’s Science Movements and Parents participated in the convention. Ritabrata Banerjee All India General Secretary of SFI moved the draft resolution on behalf of all the organizations at the beginning of the Convention. This Convention was addressed by Comrade Sitaram Yechury, Comrade D Raja, Comrade Abani Roy and Dr Barun Mukherjee along with leaders off all organizations which were participating. The Higher Education Minister of West Bengal Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury, Professor Prabhat Patnaik, Vice Chairman Kerala Planning Board and Professor Soumen Chattopadhyay from JNU also addressed the Convention.  The Convention resolved to strengthen the struggle against the education policies of the UPA II Government and make it more board based.

The draft resolution which was adopted in the Convention resolved to launch a National Forum in Defense of Education and hold a massive rally on December 2 in Delhi.

The Convention adopted the following resolution:

This National Convention of Students, Teachers, University Employees, Parents, Youth and Science Movements expresses its resolve to fight against the anti-people policies of UPA II Government in the field of education. These policies are aimed at pushing commercialization, centralisation and privatization of the education sector in the country. Such policies will undermine the goal of expansion, excellence and equity in education which can only be achieved through increased public spending based on a democratic education policy. This convention upholds the following demands:

·   Allocate 6% of GDP for Education as committed in the CMP of the UPA-1 Government.   

·    Include pre-primary to senior Secondary education under the purview of the Right to Education. Central Government should bear all the expenditure for implementing the Right to Education. Increase the number of schools along with strong social monitoring mechanism involving local stake holders.

·    Recruit quality teachers on a permanent basis. Remove the freeze on appointments and cuts in teaching and non-teaching positions.

·  Oppose handing over of public educational institutions’ infrastructure and management to the private sector in the name of Public Private Partnerships.

·  Reject fee hike. Fully subsidize students from economically backward and disadvantaged backgrounds.

·   Enact a central legislation to bring all private self-financing institutions under strict social control.     

·   Implement constitutionally mandated SC/ST/OBC reservations in all educational institutions.

·   Fight all attempts to undermine the democratic control of the Parliament, State Assemblies and statutory structures of Universities and colleges (including through instruments like NCHER). Fight against centralization of education.

·   Oppose FDI in Education.

·   Scrap the FEI Bill and suitably amend the other recently introduced bills.

·   Scrap private universities and deemed university status to private institutions.

·  Use Information Technology for Distance Education to provide universal lifelong quality education. Do not commercialize distance education.

·  Undertake Assessment for improvement not Accreditation or Funding. Evolve a democratic and transparent mechanism for Assessment.

·   Uphold democratic rights in the sphere of education. Hold elections for Students’ Unions, Teaching and Non-Teaching Associations. Provide elected representation in all decision making bodies.

This Convention resolves to launch NATIONAL FORUM IN DEFENCE OF EDUCATION. This Convention gives a clarion call to hold a massive rally on December 2, 2010 involving all stakeholders like students, teachers, non-teaching employees and officers of schools, colleges & universities, youth, parents, people’s science movement in order to force the Central Government to accept the aforesaid demands and related issues. To make this rally a grand success such convention at the level of states, districts and institutions should be organized.

Stop Centralisation, Privatisation and Commercialisation

Save and Strengthen Public Education

SFI, AISF, AISB, PSU, DYFI, AIYF, RYF, AIYL, STFI, AIFUCTO, DTF, AIUEC, AIPSN, BGVS, AIPA