People's Democracy

A TWO-day all India convention on Education was inaugurated on January 12 at the JNU City Centre, New Delhi and was attended by nearly 200 delegates from all over the country on behalf of the SFI, DYFI, DTF, STFI, AIPSN and several college, school and university teachers’ organisations.

Vijender Sharma delivered the welcome address and Professor Prabhat Patnaik, Dr JBG Tilak, Professor Arjun Dev, and Professor Anil Sadgopal addressed the plenary session. Sitaram Yechury delivered the keynote address. Two commissions namely, on school education and higher education, respectively, shall deliberate upon these views.

Professor Prabhat Patnaik argued that there are two basic conflicting views prevalent about education today. One is to view education as a ‘Right’ and the other is view education as a ‘Commodity’. The most common argument forwarded against providing education as a right to all people of our country is the lack of adequate ‘resources’. He argued that expenditure on education was related more to the political will of the ruling classes rather than the availability of funds. He argued that it is possible to devise a well-planned scheme, which inter-rates the expenditure on both education and job guarantee in order to substantially redress both these problems. Since the tax-GDP ratio of our country is very low he proposed that taxes could be levied on the immigration of highly trained and qualified professionals to advanced capitalist countries who unlike skilled and semi-skilled immigrants do not augment the countries resources in any significant way. Additionally, he proposed that taxes could also be levied on Private Coaching Institutes, which earn huge profits. Prabhat Patnaik also argued against fee hikes of any kind and stated that starving education in the name of funds was a faulty and irrational idea.

Dr JBG Tilak emphasised the need to have a policy regarding higher education in our country today and outlined various ills afflicting the field of education in the neo-liberal era. He emphasised that ‘equity, quality and quantity’ of higher education had all been adversely affected in recent times. Prof. Arjun Dev called for the rejection of the ‘National Curriculum Framework 2005’ as it completely fails to take steps to detoxify education and further erodes the national character of our education system. Professor Anil Sadgopal presented a strong case for adopting the Common School System and criticised the tendency in policy-making circles to gradually equate ‘education’ with ‘literacy’ in our country.

Sitaram Yechury argued that the year 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the New Education Policy, which advocated for the abandonment of the right of education in our country. He argued that the education policy of successive governments since independence was dictated by the needs and the requirements of the ruling classes. The era of liberalisation and globalisation was the worst phase wherein pressures to cut expenditure came from all quarters particularly from the World Bank and IMF. As a result education is fast becoming a privilege and there is a renewed need to intensify struggles to fight for the right to universal education. Elaborating on issues as wide ranging as the common school system, curriculum reform, social control in private institutions, the dangers of foreign and private universities, GATS, to the need for increased allocation in the field of education. Yechury argued that the right to education was under threat both from imperialism as well as the communal forces. He argued that there was a need to adopt a common approach among all these engaged in the field of education in order to build more united and vibrant struggles in the day ahead in order to fight against the onslaughts on education. (INN)