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Sunday, Aug 14, 2005

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Admissions: Left for new legislation

Special Correspondent

"This is to ensure education for those who cannot afford it".

The party argued that if freedom of the private institutions was sacrosanct, the principle of social justice was equally inviolable

NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Saturday said the United Progressive Alliance Government should bring forth a legislation to ensure that private professional educational institutions conformed to certain norms concerning admission, with the Communist Party of India describing the Supreme Court judgment on the autonomy of such institutions as "retrograde.''

The judgment concerning the private professional educational institutions clearly pointed to the need for a legislative empowerment in order to ensure that these conformed to certain norms concerning admissions, fee structure and the content of the syllabus.

Central legislation

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it had been suggesting that a central legislation must be enacted to empower State Governments to institute a mechanism for exercising social control on these matters. "This is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that higher professional education does not become a commodity to be sold only to those who can afford it,'' the Polit Bureau said in a statement.

"In the name of protecting the freedom of the private institutions not enjoying Government grant and aid, the Supreme Court has, in fact, allowed the private management to ignore not only the nationally accepted policy of reservation but also has impinged upon the right of the socially-challenged young people to have access to education in these institutions in a limited way,'' the CPI National Council said.

The party argued that if freedom of the private institutions was sacrosanct, the principle of social justice was equally inviolable, while allowing unfettered freedom to the private institutions that had "always looked for profit than doing a social service." "The broader social perspective has been overlooked and to leave them outside the pale of Government policy, appears to be dangerous and socially unjustified,'' it said. A.B. Bardhan, party general secretary, said the issue was a matter of public policy and had to be decided by Parliament.

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