BANGALORE: The All-India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations and its affiliates — the Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations of Karnataka and the Bangalore University College Teachers' Association — on Tuesday denounced the report of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) submitted to the Prime Minister in January.

Addressing presspersons here, Federation general secretary V.K. Tewari and office-bearers of the affiliate organisations said that the Commission, headed by Sam Pitroda, had been guided by the dictates of the market economy of neo-imperialist globalisation.

`Stress on privatisation'

Stating that the report of the Commission emphasised privatisation and commercialisation of higher education, he said higher education would become unaffordable for the middle class if it were privatised.

The Commission report had recommended dismantling statutory regulatory bodies like the University Grants Commission, All-India Council for Technical Education and the Medical Council of India. These bodies were proposed to be replaced by an independent regulatory authority for higher education, he said.

Mr. Tewari maintained that the recommendations of the Commission violated the Constitution and demanded that it be rejected completely.

The Union Government should immediately scrap the Commission and constitute a national education commission on the lines of the Kothari Commission to evolve a national policy of education, he suggested.

The Federation would launch a nationwide campaign against the recommendations of the Commission, tentatively from August when colleges would reopen after holidays, he said. Awareness would also be created among students about the impact of the recommendations of the Commission.

Referring to the problems of college teachers in Karnataka, the Federation demanded the merger of 50 per cent of dearness allowance, remuneration for evaluation work, increasing the retirement age for lecturers to 65 years and incentives for lecturers for obtaining Ph.D.

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