Accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre of advancing neo-liberalisation in education, Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxists) Nilotpal Basu here on Sunday called upon the student community to rise in unison and defeat the purpose of the Government.
Inaugurating the four-day “Study Camp of South Indian States” of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), he observed that while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ushered economic liberalisation in the 1990s, the Union Minister for Human Resources Development Kapil Sibal was enthusiastic in liberalising the education sector and destabilising the basic objectives of Directive Principles of the State Policy.
He said that the need of the hour was radical transformation of education policy with focus on standardisation of syllabus, fee structure and quality. “It is the responsibility of the student community to force the Government to focus on universalisation of education, without giving room for making education a commodity by corporate forces,” he said.
He said the country's education system was in a pathetic state. Because of reckless privatisation in the education sector, the share of private participation was 17 per cent compared with 7.9 per cent 10 years ago. Over 50 per cent of the educational institutions were under the private sector. Besides that, the Centre was keen to introduce the Private-Public Partnership model.
Criticising the Government's Foreign Education Institution (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill 2010, Mr. Basu said the Bill had given free run to domestic and foreign corporations in the Indian education market.
The challenge
A major challenge before the student community was to fight against the forces that were engaged in dividing the country on communal lines and destroying its plural character. “It is the responsibility of the student community to protect the unity and harmony in the country. The greatest challenge before them is to fight gender inequity,” he noted. Referring to Mysore's rich cultural heritage, he urged the students to develop a "fighting spirit and courage" to take on the evil forces in the society. "Tipu Sultan should be your role model when it comes to valiancy and fighting against evils," he said.
KNOWLEDGE IS USED FOR INVESTMENT NOWADAYS:THOMAS JOSEPH
The era of sharing knowledge for progress of all in society has yielded place to times when knowledge is utilised for making investments, said Thomas Joseph, Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Goverment of Kerala.
Speaking in the seminar on 'Contemporary education system' as part of the study camp on Southern States organised by SFI here, he said education in our system of the past used to shed light. But, nowadays education is confined to seek livelihood. In that context, as the values of education got transformed, use of knowledge too has undergone a change. It has become a means for investment similar to human resource. Knowledge too has become a resource, he opined. Parents make investments in order to provide education to their children. The teaching fraternity receive part of that investment and give back knowledge. Those who acquire knowledge use their knowledge for investment for economic gain. The value of education has thus declined, he remarked.
Although many reforms have been made in the education sector, a large number of people have not benefited mainly due to poverty. There are families which do not earn even Rs. 20 as daily income. While feeding the members of such families is itself not possible, educating their children is out of question, he said.
Mayor Sandesh Swamy, inaugurating the seminar, remarked that most of the institutions, instead of providing good education had moved away from their responsibility and focussed on raking in profits. The education system in vogue during the British rule still continued and should be changed, he averred.
Presiding over the function, P.K. Biju, national president, SFI, and MP, said that the study workshop should concentrate on the threat that the education system faces because of neo-liberalism. V.J.K. Nair, National President of CITU, taking part as chief guest recalled that Mysore provided the inspiration for the communist struggle in Kerala.
Former MLA and SFI founder-leader G.V. Srirama Reddy criticised the policies followed by the Centre and State Governments for higher and technical education saying that they were only burdensome instead of being helpful to students.
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