Mumbai: The Forum Against Commercialisation of Education has started a signature campaign demanding that the recently reintroduced cross-subsidisation policy for postgraduate medical courses be extended to all professional courses. The Forum is also planning a state-level conference and has warned of an agitation if the demand is not met.
Members of the non-governmental organisation (NGO), which has been working for free and compulsory primary and secondary education and subsidisation of higher education since 2003, gathered at Nana Chowk in Girgaum to discuss the issue. Several parents, teachers and lawyers were present for the meeting.
“We had sent a letter stating our demands to the Maharashtra government and the Chief Minister 10 days ago, to which we received no reply. We aim to collect one lakh signatures which we will submit to the CM,” said Dr. Vivek Korde, organiser of the Forum.
Dr. Korde said that unaided educational institutions started functioning in 1983-84 and those belonging to the middle class were excluded from these institutions due to the high capitation fees.
After a large number of parents and organisations went to court, the Supreme Court’s ruled in 1993 that there should be three quotas in student selection in private professional educational facilities: 50% government quota, 35% management quota, and 15% NRI quota. Students from the management and NRI quota were charged a higher fee, which was used to cross-subsidise the fees of students from government quota, making them on a par with fees charged by government colleges.
“Previously, private institutes could exploit every student, but after the judgement, they could only exploit 50%. Then the management of these private educational facilities kept filing petitions in the Supreme Court, and then came the SC judgement of 2003, which abolished this three-tier fee structure and promoted a singular fee structure, irrespective of the quota under which a student is selected,” said Dr. Korde.
The Forum will hold a State-wide conference in September, and if no steps are taken, the Forum is planning agitations on the roads across the State, including outside the Mantralaya.
“Education should not be in the hands of charlatans and those who want to commercialise it. To devastate a nation, all you need to do is lower the standard of education. We will not allow this to happen,” Dr. Korde said.
