CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has called for changing the government so that the black provisions in the laws that turned education a profit-making commodity can be changed .
Addressing a public meeting organised in connection with the 58th annual meeting of Association of Kerala Government College Teachers here on Friday, Ms. Karat said the policies being followed by both the Central government under Narendra Modi and the State government under Oommen Chandy were similar since both were moving ahead with the policy of turning education into a tradable, profit-making commodity.
This, they try to achieve through three instruments, namely autonomy, special education zones and private universities, she pointed out.
Giving autonomy to colleges is nothing but offering backdoor entry for privatisation.
Special education zones would soon turn into special exploitation zones and no laws existing in the country would be binding on them. The private universities would allow the corporates to enter the field in large numbers with impunity and make money by selling the most popular programmes for the highest prices, she pointed out.
If implemented the clauses which assured social justice and social control over education would be lost forever. This would mean that the socially and economically marginalised in the country will be kept out of the education system forever, denying them access to their most effective instrument for liberation, she said.
K Ramkrishnan, president, AKGCT, chaired the session.
