The All India Forum for Right to Education (AIF-RTE) is going to organize a Parliament March on 24th February 2010 from Ramlila Maidan to the Parliament Street which will culminate in a public meeting on the Parliament Street itself. This March to the Parliament is aimed at exposing the neo-liberal educational agenda being pursued by the UPA Government at the Centre in collaboration with the state/UT governments. About 35 teachers’ and students’ organizations, Right to Education Groups and basti-level community organizations from 16 states will participate in this March in order to save Indian education from the onslaught of the corporate capital and the global market and to place before the nation an alternative political agenda of systemic transformation in the education system and policy.
The AIF-RTE will draw public attention to the rising pace of privatization and commercialization of education, coupled with unbridled profiteering, being promoted by the UPA Government. On the one hand, a free hand is being given to the market forces for trade in education, the government itself, on the other hand, is increasingly handing over and outsourcing the public institutions and schemes to the corporate houses, religious bodies and NGOs. This crisis is now being exacerbated through various forms of Public Private Partnership (PPP) – the latest neo-liberal assault on Indian education system. The Parliament March will also caution the nation to the danger posed by the “offers” made by the UPA Government to General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) under WTO relating to higher education. Further, AIF-RTE will ask the Central government to reverse its policy of abdicating its Constitutional obligation to provide equal opportunity to all children and youth in and through the education system. This Constitutional vision, inherited from the freedom struggle, cannot be achieved unless the State’s commitment to adequate public funding is restored along with a complete ban on all forms of trade in education as a matter of national priority.
The Parliament March on 24th February 2010 shall ask the Central and state governments to,
Review the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 in order to guarantee Fundamental Right to free education of equitable quality up to 18 years of age, including Fundamental Right to balanced nutrition, health support and pre-primary education for children below six years of age;
Replace the farcical Right to Education Act, 2009 with an Act rooted in a fully public-funded ‘Common School System based on Neighborhood Schools’ from pre-primary to Class XII; upgrade infrastructural (including teacher-related), curricular and pedagogic norms and standards of all schools to at least those of the Central Schools;
Provide all necessary support to include the disabled children in regular formal schools;
Upgrade the status of all Para Teachers appointed in schools since the 1990s and merge them in the cadre of regular teachers; ensure that no teacher shall ever be required to perform any task other than teaching;
Redefine ‘FREE EDUCATION’ to include, apart from tuition-free education, exemption from all other direct or contingent expenses required for completing education and above all, the provision of opportunity cost and all necessary support systems for the poor, disadvantaged and the disabled;
Take over all fee-charging private schools, colleges and universities and place them under democratic, decentralized and participative governance at par with state-funded institutions;
Convert all self-financing courses in government colleges and universities to fully public-funded courses;
Stop all forms of Public Private Partnership (PPP) including tax exemptions; free or subsidized land and other hidden subsidies; voucher schools; sale, leasing or renting of government schools or their campuses; outsourcing of government schools and schemes;
[As revealed by the HRD Minister Shri Kapil Sibal yesterday, the private institutions benefiting from PPP shall be free to arbitrarily hike their fees and make profit which makes it necessary to seek a complete ban on PPP]
Reject reports of Sam Pitroda’s Knowledge Commission and Yashpal Committee on higher education as these are embedded in the neo-liberal policy of commoditization, PPP and facilitating the entry of foreign universities and other foreign providers instead of advancing the agenda of improving the quality of the existing government colleges and universities;
Establish at least one comprehensive government university in each district whose academic agenda will include socio-economic development of the region;
Withdraw all proposals for introduction of Foreign Education Providers Bill and Private Universities Bill;
Allocate adequate funds to fill up the cumulative gap of investment building up since 1986 and all required funding thereafter for continuing improvement of the education system while strictly banning the siphoning off the public funds to the corporate houses, religious bodies and NGOs through the PPP mode; and
Withdraw ‘offers’ made to WTO-GATS with respect to higher and professional education lest they become irrevocable ‘commitments’.
The Parliament March will call upon all political parties to support the above agenda in the Parliament as well as the state legislatures and also undertake a political programme to compel the central and state governments to recover the Constitutional agenda of building a democratic, socialist, secular, egalitarian and enlightened society through the education system.
1. Shri Kuldip Nayar, Eminent Journalist and former Member, Rajya Sabha.
2. Prof. Ramakant Agnihotri, Deptt. of Linguistics, Delhi University and Member, AIF-RTE Board of Advisors.
3. Prof. Anil Sadgopal, Shiksha Adhikar Manch, Bhopal & Member, AIF-RTE Presidium.
4. Sh. Sunil, National Vice-President, Samajwadi Jan Parishad & Member, AIF-RTE Presidium.
5. Dr. Madhu Prasad, Zakir Husain College, Delhi University & Member, AIF-RTE Presidium.
6. Sh. Ramesh Patnaik, Organising Secretary, A.P. Save Education Committee, Hyderabad & Member, AIF-RTE Secretariat.
7. Dr. V.N. Sharma, Jharkhand Vigyan Manch, Ranchi & Member, AIF-RTE Secretariat.
8. Dr. Shaheen Ansari, Arkitect India, New Delhi & Member, AIF-RTE Secretariat.
9. Ms. Geeta Athreya, Member, AIF-RTE Parliament Rally Organising Committee.
10. Ms. Guddi, Committee for Equal Fundamental Right to Education, Mumbai & Member, AIF-RTE National Council.
11. Sh. T. Surjit Singh, Synroplang for Social Transformation, Shillong, Meghalaya & Member, AIF-RTE National Council.
12. Sh. Ravi Rai, General Secretary, All India Students Association (AISA) & Member, AIF-RTE National Council.
13. Sh. Arman Ansari, Vidyarthi Yuvjan Sabha & Member, AIF-RTE National Council.
14. Sh. Manoj, All India Revolutionary Students Organisation (AIRSO) & Member, AIF-RTE National Council.
