Privatizing the Public Education

Privatizing the Public Education

H Srikanth

The NEP 2020 talks about making India a ‘Vishwa Guru’.

We have been reminded time and again that in ancient India we had several premier universities and lakhs of ‘gurukuls’ spread across the length and breadth of the country, imparting education to the natives and foreigners. 

The narrative hides the fact that the universities like Nalanda and Takshila were Buddhist centres of learning, whereas the gurukuls were basically the schools run by the brahmin teachers for education of the children from the upper castes. Both in ancient and medieval periods, the women, tribal people and the lower castes had little access to education.

 However, after the colonization, the British introduced modern liberal and secular education. They allowed the women and the lower castes to get access to education. The extension of education then was motivated by the colonial desire to create English knowing Indians who would serve the British.

But the progressive reformers, philanthropists and the missionaries who realized the potentiality of English education, established schools, colleges and universities. Our national leaders emphasized the importance of educating everyone regardless of their background..

After independence, the Indian government took the lead in laying the foundations for public education in the country. The government established educational institutions–schools, colleges, universities, IITs and IIMs. The reservation policy was implemented to ensure the access to the SCs, STs and OBCs who were denied access to education earlier.

The governments provided grants and other forms of support to the private educational institutions and ensured the citizens’ access to education, even in private educational institutions. Public educational institutions provided affordable education, allowing the poor and middle classes to learn and improve their social status. 

Many of us would not have achieved name, status, and fame today had there been no public education. It is sad that such a public education which contributed to the process of democratization in the country now finds itself in crisis because of the market forces and the faulty policies of the state and central governments.

The decline of public started in the 1980s with the government policy supporting commercialization of education. The process took a big leap, with India giving up the façade of socialism and going in for liberalization in the 1990s. After India became a party to the WTO sponsored General Agreement in Trade in Services (GATS) in 1997, education ceased to be a public good, and became a commodity that can be sold and purchased.

National and international capital began to enter the education sector in a big way, changing the education sector in India. As the restrictions on establishing private educational institutions were removed, private capital entered a big way establishing professional colleges, private universities, the corporate schools and coaching centres.

The number of universities, which was less than 200 in the 1990s, increased to over one thousand in the year 2023. Around half of them are now private universities. They are free to award degrees, start any courses and charge any amount of fee in the name of recovering the cost. Just have a look at the fee structure of some of the premier private universities operating in India.

They charge several lakhs of rupees as an annual fee, even for ordinary degree and PG courses. In professional colleges, they squeeze crores of rupees from the students taking admission under the management quota. Some of these private colleges and universities have only buildings in place, and no qualified teachers and labs. 

Their aim is not to spread education but to earn profits. I don’t deny that there are some good private universities also; but even there the cost of education is so high that they are not accessible even to the middle-class families. These private educational institutions provide several options and openings for the upper middle class and the rich.

But they have no relevance to a great majority of the people who are from poor and marginalized backgrounds. For the great majority of people, public education continues to be the only option for pursuing education. But what is the status of public universities today?

The central government talks so much about transforming the face of education. The NEP 2020 seeks to change the education in the country by updating curriculum, introducing relevant syllabus, recruiting teachers, and use of technologies. All these objectives can be achieved, provided the government allocates sufficient funds for the education sector. But what is the reality?

The NEP 2020 promises spending 6 percent of GDP towards education. But it never talks about increasing the annual budgetary allocation for education. The percentage of central budgetary allocation for education continues to be less than 4 percent. Number of public universities has increased in the country, but the total allocation remains stagnant; in fact declining in real terms.

Per capita budgetary allocation for the public educational institutions has declined over the years. Many state universities in the country don’t have minimum infrastructure. They have been running courses with guest teachers. Even the financial situation in the central university is also worsening. They don’t receive as much funds as they used to receive earlier. 

The central government is no more ready to sanction budget for construction of academic buildings or hostels. They are asking the universities to borrow loans under Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) to build infrastructure. There is no guarantee of additional teachers for running new courses that the universities and colleges seek to introduce.

The NEP 2020 expects the public educational institutions to fill the budgetary gaps by mobilizing internal sources. But how can they mobilize the internal sources?

The solutions that the NEP 2020 offers to overcome the resource constraints include increasing the students fee; renting out buildings and land for private parties; starting self-financing courses; engaging guest teachers; linking educational institutions with industries; entering MOUs with outside agencies and institutions and mobilizing funds from private agencies. 

In a way, the government has given up the public responsibility and expecting the educational institutions to fend themselves. It is possible for some premier universities in metropolitan cities to mobilize internal sources to some extent, but for the universities in backward areas will have little options left. 

As the cost of education escalates, the universities and the colleges affiliated to the universities will be compelled to increase the student fee, or squeeze money from the gullible students by running self-financing courses by employing unqualified guest teachers. The government run or government supported educational institutions lose their public character.

Once quality of education in the public universities declines, more and more the parents spend all their savings and send their wards to corporate colleges and private universities. As the public institutions become dependent on sponsorship from external agencies, public education institutions lose their autonomy. 

Recent developments in Ashoka University and South Asian University show how teaching and research activities are monitored and controlled to please the sponsoring agencies.

In the emerging educational scenario, the students now become the consumers, and the teachers turn into producers. The educational institutions become market places. Neither the teacher nor the student takes their duties and responsibilities seriously. In such a neo-liberal environment, the ideal bond that should exist between teacher and student disappears.

 Can we expect the students who spend lakhs of rupees to buy degrees have any empathy for the nation or the society?

Amassing the money by hook or crook, not serving the people, becomes the motto of the new breed of teachers and students. All that sanctity attached to the public educational institutions will disappear as education gets more privatized and commercialized.  

Images from different sources.

[The writer teaches Political Science in NEHU, and article is first published in The Shillong Times]

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