The Hindu : National : Yechury demands equity in education

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Sunday, Sep 25, 2005

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Yechury demands equity in education

Staff Reporter

"Government must set up an independent regulator" "There are four things that we believe need social control. These include the admission policy, fee structure and content of syllabus which should be in conformity with the rules followed by the Government,''

Sitaram Yechury

NEW DELHI: Emphasising the need for "social control" on private educational institutions, Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury demanded that the Government set up an independent regulator to monitor the working of private institutes to ensure equity in and access to education.

Speaking at a convention on "Commercialisation of higher education: social responsibility versus private greed,'' organised by SAHMAT in collaboration with the Democratic Teachers Front here on Saturday, Mr. Yechury said with the recent Supreme Court judgment in the Inamdar case freeing private institutes from the reservation policy, the Government should amend the Constitution and bring about a draft legislation in the winter session of Parliament.

Setting up a new mechanism would not only help to monitor the working of these institutes but make them more accountable. While pointing out that the Constitutional amendment must provide for social control in terms of admissions, fee structure and content of education, Mr. Yechury said there should be a policy for private institutes that conformed to that followed by government institutions.

"There are four things that we believe need social control. These include the admission policy, fee structure and content of syllabus which should be in conformity with the rules followed by the Government,'' he said.

While charging the previous NDA Government with consciously giving commercial higher education a push, the convention noted that the Government had offered to open up the education sector to liberalisation without any safeguards and limitations.

Commenting on the recent decision of the Indian Institutes of Technology to allow only students with a first class to take the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), Mr. Yechury said judging a student's ability only on the basis of one exam was unfair. "In any case these days people don't get so many opportunities. Although there should be a standard for selection, how can you choose a student only on the basis of one exam. His entire life is going to depend on how he fares in that one exam.''

The convention was attended by academics such as Prabhat Patnaik, Sukhdeo Thorat, Madhu Prasad and Vijendra Kumar. Noting that education must be a right and not a privilege, the convention felt that a number of important issues relating to the country's growing education sector needed to be addressed by the Government at the earliest.

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