Dr. Asangba Tzüdir
For Affordable Education and Employment
The “Young India” has organised a ‘Young India Adhikar March’ on February 7, 2019 from Lal Qila to Parliament Street with a serious intention to come together and present their Charter to the people with the understanding that everyone has a stake on the future of the Country.
This has also come in the wake of the University Grants Commission granting autonomy to sixty Higher Educational Institutions which have maintained high academic standards. This move was hailed by the Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar who rationalised the move as a strive towards introducing a liberalized regime in the education sector giving emphasis on linking autonomy with quality. Giving further details, he said that the these universities will remain within the ambit of UGC but will have the freedom to start new courses, off campus centers, skill development courses, research perks and any other new academic programs. Among others, the selected institutes can now decide their admission procedure, fee structure and also the curriculum.
This move has been widely opposed by a wide section of teachers and students and rightly so because of the implications. The above details of the autonomy seem to suggest freedom of teaching and learning but on the whole it is seen as a privatisation move in the guise of autonomy. Further, this autonomy is such that it will still come under the ambit of the UGC and therefore it is not full autonomy but can be translated as ‘greater autonomy.’
The implication is that the financial resources will have to be generated by the institution concerned and therefore the freedom to decide their admission procedure and fee structure. Automatically it will lead to a hike in the students fee, and even the subjects and courses may be tailor made in terms of market value. When the cost of education increases, a student will be greatly discouraged to take up a course of study which does not have market value. Subjects associated with Humanities especially will hit difficult times in terms of value. Online and distance mode open learning will surely cut down the infrastructural expenses, but it cuts quality education as well. Thus this autonomy drive can be seen as a move towards commodifying education along with compromise on quality education. There are other serious implications of this move but the focus will by on the contention and demands of the proposed protest.
The Young India demand that – All vacant Government positions be filled immediately, and also increase the number of government job; that the regime of paper leaks and corruption in recruitment end immediately; that atleast 10% of GDP should be spend on education; to stop the policy of school closure in the name of merging, seat-cut, fund-cut, fee hike and reservation-cut in higher education; to end gender discriminatory rules; to ensure girls hostel and effective Anti-Sexual Harrassment Cells; to end Saffronisation of Education; to stop destroying public-funded education and to open 100 new central universities with proper infrastructure; to ensure Academic freedom and freedom of expression in campuses; to fulfill constitutionally mandated reservations; to restore democratically elected student Unions in all campuses across the country, and to ensure effective Anti-discrimination Cells in all campuses.
The ‘Young India’ has voiced out strongly against Prime Minister Modi’s ‘regime’ which has witnessed a systematic destruction of public funded school and higher education; massive budgetary cut in education and brazen misuse of power to benefit private educational institutions. The sky-rocketing of unemployment has also been highlighted besides feeding the youth with false promises. To this end, the Young India is endeavouring to reach out to all the students and youths across the Country with an urge to flood the streets of Delhi and ensure that Education and Employment becomes the biggest agenda of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
A ‘Report Card’ on Education and Employment is also brought out to make their case pertinent and substantive. That, the rate of unemployment in India is highest in the last 20 years stating that 82% men and 92% women are earning even less than Rs. 10,000 per month and shamefully 24 lakhs government jobs are lying vacant; the Government spending in Education has also fallen from 4.77% in 2013-14, (which is the last year of UPA govt.) to 3.48% in 2018-2019; taking MHRD’s own report, for every 100 persons in the age group of 18-23 years only 25.8 persoons access higher education; between 2014-2016, over 26,000 students have committed suicide in India and the biggest cause of this trend is put on the increasing privitisation of higher education which forces students to take hefty loans.
The current trend of commodifying education has only reduced the scope of education as a public good and which has taken humanity out of education. This has come at a time when Education should be made affordable for students besides creating more employment opportunities. Thus, the proposed protest by ‘Young India’ as a majot stakeholder force is timely and pertinent.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
