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Neo-liberal policies will distort education: Panikkar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Neo-liberal policies being adopted as part of the process of globalisation will distort the general education system in India and hinder the creation of a multicultural society based on equality for all citizens, vice-chairman of the State Higher Education Council K.N. Panikkar has said.

He was speaking at the National Student Parliament organised by the Students Federation of India, here on Tuesday. The theme of the ‘parliament’ is ‘Students Against Imperialism and Globalisation.’

Education is an extremely important content of a multi-cultural society where each culture has an equal status. In contrast in a plural-cultural society — like the one that exists in India — all cultures need not be deemed equal. The education system as proposed by the National Knowledge Commission would help the creation of the latter and not the former, he said.

What India needs today is not a sectoral education but a national education that is available to everyone. Today the tendency is to talk of a global education and not a national education. While it is important to be part of the knowledge society it is also important to distinguish between globalisation and the more desired universalisation.

What with the digital divide, a knowledge society will inherently be an unjust society as far as India is concerned. he added.

In his inaugural address Education Minister M.A. Baby said the proponents of globalisation favoured only the free flow of capital across borders; they would not permit a similar flow of labour. Globalisation is nothing but a project of imperialism; one that aims at the social, political and military domination of the world, he said.

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