MADURAI
The Save Higher Education Movement - Tamil Nadu on Tuesday said that the focus provided on higher education by most parties in their manifestos for the upcoming parliamentary elections was inadequate.
Addressing media here on Tuesday, the office-bearers of the movement said that while Congress, DMK and the Left parties gave prominent focus on higher education, they had not proposed comprehensive measures to address the deep-rooted problems plaguing the higher education scenario in the country, particularly Tamil Nadu.
Some of the key issues the movement highlighted were the increasing privatisation of education, lack of democratic space for students on campuses, corruption entrenched in higher education, and increasing use of staff on contractual basis.
R. Murali, coordinator of the movement, said that while self-financing and aided colleges offering self-financing courses had mushroomed, there had been no growth in the number or quality of government colleges.
“There is no stringent mechanisms to monitor the functioning of these self-financing colleges or the fees they arbitrarily charge,” he said.
Similarly, the movement pointed out that while higher education campuses remained a thriving space for students’ unions and various clubs, that democratic space had become almost non-existent now.
“There is no avenue for students to discuss societal issues and become politically aware. Government must implement the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations to conduct students’ union elections in colleges,” he said.
The movement strongly condemned the present Union government’s proposal to dismantle the University Grants Commission. It said that the move was intended to remove control from academicians and give it to politicians and bureaucrats.
It demanded a thorough enquiry into various corruption and other allegations in universities and colleges.
“For instance, the issue involving Nirmala Devi, an assistant professor from a constituent college of MKU, has been given a silent burial with the arrest of just three people,” he said, adding that the representatives who get elected in the upcoming elections must raise their voice for comprehensive enquiries into these allegations.
The movement appealed to the voters, particularly students pursuing higher education, to identify and support the candidates who can work for the betterment of higher education.
