Education-for-all question for Modi

Modi addresses the 56th annual convocation of the IIT Bombay on Saturday. (PTI)

TT, Aug 12, 2018  Mumbai: The statement attributed to IIT Bombay students that questions several of the Narendra Modi government's policies refers to several issues afflicting higher education although it gets a few details wrong.

It flags the "steep decline" in the higher education budget at a time when "more and more private universities are coming up and public universities are compelled to hike their fees... forcing many out of higher education".

"We wonder whether Modi wants higher education for all or... is promoting the Brahmanical idea of education only for a few people, belonging to upper-caste and upper-class background."

The statement condemns the proposal to replace the University Grants Commission, headed by academics, with a Higher Education Committee of India, to be manned by bureaucrats.

"Since the power to control funds will remain with the (human resource development) ministry under the new act and HECI will have the power to punish or even shut down any institution which will not meet its guidelines... we suspect this to be an attack on the autonomy of the universities," it says.

The statement sees a worrying trend in the recent (unsuccessful) attempt to abolish the non-NET fellowships for central university research scholars and the GoI-PMS scholarships - mistakenly suggesting they have been scrapped.

It says the government proposal for central universities to raise a part of their revenues themselves would lead to further fee hikes. "Is it wrong to think this to be an attack on the entire academic community of the country in general?" the statement asks.

It points to the recent fee hikes by IIT Bombay, which in May last year raised hostel, mess and gymkhana fees and the medical premium by 100 to 300 per cent per semester. Eventually, the institute announced a partial rollback following student protests.

"Shouldn't we ask here what happens to the students who are not able to meet this increased financial burden of higher education without economic assistance from the state? Why shouldn't we ask that this abysmally low budget in public education be raised immediately, and education be made inclusive?" the statement says.

It, however, mistakenly suggests that "specialised centres like Centre for Study of Social Exclusion (at JNU) or Centre for Women's Studies (at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences), which deal with social exclusion and raise criticism, are dissolved".

The higher education regulator says a letter that some universities had received early last year saying it was ending the funding for centres that study "social exclusion and inclusive policy" was a "forgery".

"Will it be wrong for us to question the Prime Minister why his government is hell bent on destroying the educational institutions of this country? Will it be wrong for us to ask, why the government is scared of higher education and freedom of teachers and students in selecting what they want to study?" Friday's statement says.