Govt of India seeking to "over-centralize" higher education in the name of promoting public-private partnership

AISEC rally in Delhi on New Education Policy

By A Representative
The All-India Save Education Committee (AISEC), a civil society organization of left-wing educationists, has accused the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), Government of India, of seeking to take the country towards centralization of higher education under the garb of having quality education.
Commenting on the proposed New Education Policy (NEP) of the MHRD, in an exhausting AISEC in its 31-page scrutiny quotes from the Government of India document, which says that, to improve the quality of education, there is a need for “a robust regulatory mechanism” to fight the challenge posed by its “unprecedented, yet unplanned expansion”.
Says AISEC, NEP believes this expansion is because of “private institutions”, who have been instrumental in poor quality of higher education, with many of them lacking “proper infrastructure and faculty strength” and “poor academic standards”, even as taking “exorbitant fees from students.”
In an effort to control this unplanned expansion, AISEC says, the effort is to promote public private partnership (PPP) in order to meet “wide resource gaps” needing to improve “service delivery and promotion of excellence.” It underlines, “This trend of centralizing everything is aimed really at attempts to concentrate power to curb opposition.”
The effort to promote PPP is being pursued, even though the NEP document that it has been a failure, says AISEC. AISEC quotes the document as saying, “While PPP in higher education has been pursued as a strategy, not many have shown successful results.”
Comments AISEC, “Clearly, on the plea of private institutions working below the mark, the policymakers are after firm control. Their words themselves are confusing because expansion does not challenge quality; unplanned may.”
Wondering if there is a “hidden agenda”, AISEC says, the MHRD document proposes that a “single regulatory body be set up for equity, expansion and excellence.” Even as talking of autonomy, AISEC states, the document talks of “uniformity in terms of syllabi and curricula through a framework”, and “possibility of a single national test in place of multiplicity of entrance and eligibility examinations.”
“In short, with contradictory and verbose pronouncements NEP talks of looking for curb of academic autonomy, for bringing everything under single control. Neither is the idea new, nor straightforward”, says AISEC, insisting, NEP’s stress on uniformity of syllabi and single national test are “detrimental to education in this vast country with thousand and one variations destroy a wholesome education.”
Even as seeking to control education sector, AISEC says, the NEP document talks of “permitting foreign education providers… for proper regulation and internationalization”, underlining, “It is not understood how permitting foreign education providers can help proper regulation.”
AISEC further says that the NEP document talks of “norm-based funding of higher education” without pointing towards what precisely norms are and who sets them. “This is a clever manipulation on the background of corruption existing around inspection”, comments AISEC.
“The document leaves an option of the ability of institutions to charge appropriate fees from students who can afford to pay, and at the same time having a means blind system (what is that?) for the needy students ", AISEC says.
---
Click HERE to download AISEC report on New Education Policy

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog