National Forum in Defence of Education - March to Parliament on December 2, 2010

A massive rally will be organized on 2 December 2010 in front of Parliament in which several thousand students, teachers, non-teaching employees and officers of schools, colleges & universities, youths, parents and activists of people’s science movements from all over the country will participate. They will first assemble at Ramlila ground and then march to Parliament.

The rally will be to protest against the anti-people policies of UPA II Government and its neo-liberal ‘reform’ agenda in the field of education and to force the Central Government to accept our demands. These policies are aimed at pushing centralisation, privatisation and commercialisation 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.

The call for this rally was given by ‘National Forum In Defence Of Education’ which was formed in a Convention of fifteen organizations of students, teachers, non-teaching employees and officers of schools, colleges & universities, youth, parents, people’s science movement held on 13^th August at New Delhi.

Charter of 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. Delete the provision, Section 35 of the Act, requiring prior permission for any prosecution. The 86^th Constitution Amendment (2002) should be revisited to make the right to education inclusive of common school and neighborhood school.
•  Recruit quality teachers on a permanent basis. Remove the freeze on appointments and cuts in teaching and non-teaching positions. The para-teachers/ contract teachers  and employees should be absorbed on permanent basis.
• 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 amend the other recently introduced bills to make them democratic.
• Scrap private universities and deemed university status to private institutions.
• Stop bringing education under GATS (WTO).
• 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.