Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is a basic law of natural science. This law holds its counterpart in human society also: ‘oppression breeds resistance’. This is a basic law of social science. But the lives on the campus seem to defy this law!
Silence is reigning in the campuses for the past two decades; there has been no student movement over real issues. What is the reason behind this exception? We must try to seek truth from the facts. Before we jump to any conclusion, let’s cast a glance upon the facts related to higher education in our country.
In India only 7% of the eligible population reaches higher education, for the past two decades as per the government’s policy, seats have continuously been decreased and fees have been increased. The deduction in seats is not absolute but is relative in comparison to the number of applicants. Government has itself accepted that traditional higher education (B.A., B.Sc., etc) has lost its ‘signaling effect’ or is no longer job-oriented, whereas professional courses like engineering and medical have become the belongings of higher middle and higher class. Management courses are not even affordable for the higher middle class, only the higher class can reach there. After the period of liberalization and globalization, India’s education policies changed a lot and the government is spending less on higher education and students are made to pay from their pockets. Till 1970, the government was spending 1% of GNP which was reduced to 0.35% during the 1990s. In 1983, before the implementation of new education policy, the government had been paying 80% of higher education’s expenditure but in 1999 it was reduced to 67%. On the other side also, in engineering and medical education, the government is withdrawing its hands. Till 1960 there were only 15% private seats in engineering, but till 2004 this figure increased to 86.4%, in medical education also it has increased from 6.8% in 1960 to 40.9% in 2004. In management institutes, this number is 90%.
From all these statistics it is quite evident that the government is privatizing education, making it a commodity. The government itself has conceded that we are witnessing jobless growth and has also contended that producing jobs is not the responsibility of the government!
The motive of all such policies must also be seen. If a student from a humble background reaches higher education, he/she will soon comprehend the reality of this “competitive society”, his/her anger towards the system will be much greater and this feeling might prove to be very dangerous. So it is better to make these very dreams themselves so costly that common students cannot afford them.
The commodification of education is also the reason behind the changing class character of the students’ population; issues of the common masses do not concern them. That is why the social law of resistance fails to apply within the boundaries of campus. That law will become functional only when the sensitive students within the campus will associate themselves with the struggles of the 93% eligible population who do not reach the campus. Only then, one can imagine any change.
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