People's Democracy

SFI Organises First All India Professional Students Convention

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, the capital city of Kerala, played host to a historic first all India Professional Students’ Convention, which was held on September 17-19 and attended by more than 160 representatives from different parts of the nation. The convention discussed with utmost attention all the issues concerned at this important juncture of drastic changes in the educational sector. This experience proved to be of immense value as a cross section of delegates exchanged the situation in their respective states, struggles carried out against the policies of the government and made creative suggestions to meet the national crisis in the arena of professional education.

An impressive rally in which hundreds of professional students from medical and engineering colleges participated, marked the commencement of the convention on September 17. The rally was followed by a public meeting presided over by the chairman of Kerala Medicos Association, M Sajish. SFI general secretary Kallol Roy formally inaugurated the meeting. The former speaker of Kerala assembly, M Vijayakumar was the chief guest and in his brief speech he criticised the anti-student policies of the Congress-led UDF government in the state and applauded the heroic struggles launched by the SFI against these policies. Among those who spoke included SFI president K K Ragesh and SFI state secretary T V Rajesh. The welcome address was delivered by SFI Thiruvananthapuram district secretary S S Manoj while the chairman of the SFI Technical sub-committee, Rajesh Kumar delivered the vote of thanks.

The CPI(M) central committee member and former all India president of SFI, M A Baby formally inaugurated the convention on September 18. He recalled his active participation in the student movement against bribery and corruption in the education sector, and lauded the role of the SFI in carrying forth its glorious tradition of ‘study and struggle’. He pointed out the increasing reactionary influences in Indian education system, which is driven by the capitalist classes. He criticised the shameful policy of the government, which in practical terms was wiping off the public sector participation from education and promoting private participation in a big way. “This is not marketisation of education, but black marketisation”, he opined. “In this context,” he pointed out, “the Supreme Court verdict about fee structure further drives us away from achieving equality of education. The rights for education are snatched away from the downtrodden, who, in fact, constitute the real India.”

Baby also pointed out that, in developed countries like USA the government bears more than 66 per cent of the total expenditure of the education institutions and only one-third of the total expenditure is met from student fees. Implementation of the same principle in India leads to a situation in which education will be available at the doorstep of every citizen with a meagre fee of not more than Rs 6,000. “The Supreme Court verdict stating education to be purely a personal right is frankly questioning the equality guaranteed by the Indian constitution. The Birla-Ambani commission is the basis for all these miscued policies”, said Baby. He suggested that the situation can be corrected only in two ways – an intense public agitation against these policies and the enactment of a central legislation in the parliament against the free hand given to the unaided private institutes. He wished success to the convention and SFI in all its endeavours.

In his presidential address, K K Ragesh reminded the gathering of the past struggles conducted by SFI on the issue of commercialisation of education. He pointed out that even the directions of the HRD ministry stating that only 25 per cent of the total annual recurring expenditure be collected as fees, is never enforced properly. He criticised the BJP-led NDA government for the mindless commercialisation it initiated in the arena of education thus resulting in the deteriorating standards in professional education. “This lenient attitude to the private unaided institutes are allowing them to suck the blood of students and parents across the country”, stated Ragesh He said the profit-mongering nature of these institutes was pushing them to search for more innovative methods to suck profits and one result of it is the growth of deemed universities.

After the culmination of the inaugural session, Kallol Roy placed the approach paper on professional education for discussion. State wise group discussions were followed with the presentation of discussions from the comrades of various states. Sumithra Adhikari (Bengal), Anoop, Midhun, Rajesh Kumar K K (Kerala), Amrithamani Ganesh, Sukanya (TN), Amith (Maharashtra), Sunderlal (Rajasthan), Sudheer Sakhlani (MP), Bhaskar (AP), and Vikram Vincent (Karnataka) took part in the discussion. They shared the experiences of their states in this regard. The single most important thing that had emerged from the discussion is that except for the state of West Bengal all the state governments are bent upon opening up the field of professional education to private participation without any judicious assessment of the quality of education and the requirements of the states. Delegates also pointed out the depleting employment opportunities and also the lack of avenues for their higher education and specialisations. Social menaces like eve teasing and ragging in the professional institutes also were discussed along with suggestions to put and end to them. The growing strains of careerism and individualism among the students also formed a part of the discussions. The impact of communalism and casteism in the professional institutes was also discussed along with the unanimous pledge to work for achieving broad unity among all students by fighting these divisive tendencies. In the evening cultural programmes were presented by artists from various campuses of the Kerala University.

On the final day of the convention, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and former president of SFI, Sitaram Yechury initiated the discussion on the necessity of a central legislation to regulate the unaided institutes. He highlighted the importance of the convention by comparing it with the formation of SFI in Trivandrum about 3 decades ago. Referring to the present day political situation in the country he underlined the fact that the last election reflected the public outrage against the policy of ‘divide & rule’ by chauvinist powers in India. He urged the students to fight for the implementation of all the promises made by the new government in its Common Minimum Programme. He emphasised that the stability of UPA government is dependent on its sincerity in implementing the provisions of the CMP. He lauded the SFI’s efforts in taking the initiative in the fight against anti-people and anti-student economic policies. He particularly mentioned the draft model act prepared by the SFI to control the self-financed institutes and assured the wholehearted support of the Left parties and specifically the CPI(M) in ensuring that such legislation is enacted in the parliament.

Kallol Roy introduced the Model Act before the convention and asked the delegates to go through the draft in full earnest and further strengthen it through their discussions. Three commissions were formed among the delegates and the convention critically assessed the draft Act. The Model Act explained in detail the terms management, authority, fee structure, admission procedure etc. It completely banned collection of capitation fee and advocated for the control of even deemed universities. It also insisted to increment the fraction of merit admission with govt fee to 75 per cent.

The convention decided to accept the model act with some of the suggestions and take it up for further discussions in the entire organisation. It was decided to take this model act to the notice of legal experts and also pressurise the government to promulgate an act in the parliament on these lines.

The convention passed the following resolutions:

1. Demanding a central legislation to control self-financing colleges.

2. Against ragging and eve teasing in campuses.

3. Ensuring quality of education in professional colleges.

4. Against saffronisation and communalisation of education.

5. For democratic rights in professional campuses.

A sub-committee of the professional students’ was formed in the convention with R Arun Kumar as the convenor and Maharudra Dake, Abdul Kafi and Sajeesh as co-convenors. The convention ended on an enthusiastic note pledging to carry forward the struggles till the demands are met.