A noted academician before plunging into full-time politics, Yogendra Yadav is the Aam Aadmi Party’s principal strategist. In a free-wheeling interview to Shubhomoy Sikdar , he reveals his party’s plans to reform higher education in the Capital – a key element of the Delhi Dialogue initiative launched by the AAP.
Why has the AAP chosen to focus mainly on tertiary education when the scenario is already better than most other cities?
Higher education is the bridge that links education to employability, besides being the channel through which inequalities are passed on from one generation to another. Sample this, for 1.5 lakh students passing school, Delhi University has 80,000 seats to offer. And a little less than half of those taking admissions in the affiliated colleges are from other States. Then there is the rural-urban divide. Students from some areas have to travel for two-and-a-half hours to reach their colleges.
The party has announced plans to set up 20 colleges if voted to power. To what extent will it help to address the issue?
We will make sure that more students from Delhi get admissions in these colleges, irrespective of which university affiliates them. Despite financing 12 colleges and providing substantial grants to several others, there is no way the Delhi Government can ensure admission for the students who belong to the State.
What kind of courses does the party think-tank plans to offer through these proposed colleges? Will streams such as humanities take a backseat compared to the professional courses?
We are working on all those factors but if you see, even BA (Pass) course in Delhi is considered to be good course but many local students miss out because there aren’t enough colleges. In Delhi much of the education which can make a student employable is very expensive because its in private hands. That needs a change as well and opening new colleges is the only way to build capacity.
But isn’t bringing people and ideas together a role universities have been performing since ages? Even the ones at Nalanda and Taxila had students coming from outside.
Every metropolis which provides opportunities for higher education, tries to attract people from outside as well but only after fulfilling its local commitment. The provision of having seats reserved for Delhi students in State universities was never incorporated in colleges financed by the State governments.
In universities such as Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, there is an affiliation racket going on. So there are 160 affiliated colleges in Delhi but 77 of those don’t exist.
What are the challenges that your government, if elected, may face in setting up new colleges?
Land is obviously a major issue and we have been talking to villagers in the rural belts in Delhi’s outskirts. We will tell them that if they are willing to give us land, the common property of these villages, we will give them colleges, something they are in dire need of.
Our estimation is that once land is obtained, the entire project can be completed in a budget of Rs.500 crore which is not a lot of money to spend on education.
But clearances have to come from the Central agencies such as the Delhi Development Authority and the University Grants Commission. Given that the AAP’s relationship with the BJP at the Centre isn’t the smoothest, do you foresee additional impediments?
Such is the federal structure of this country that what is true for all other States is true for Delhi. We are not bothered about these issues.
The party’s stance against contractual jobs is well known. But universities across the country, whether the Central or the State-run, are known to recruit teachers on ad-hoc basis. What corrective measures will you take for the new colleges as well as the existing ones the Government funds?
You cannot have ad hoc appointments and expect quality education. Strangely the UGC has been writing letters to the universities to hire permanent faculty.
I cannot comment on policy matters falling under Delhi University’s ambit but we have always maintained that there should be regular appointments and that is what will happen in these colleges.
