There are several incidents pointing to Sangh Parivar setting in motion its plan to tighten hold on the educational sector, like it did with the arts and culture segment. The ongoings are limited to saffronisation at primary level, however, at the constituency level in education, the main agenda is instituting fundamentalism. There is no hesitation to ushering wage-slavery standards widely.
In that sense, the University Grants Commission(UGC)’s nod for hiring teachers on contract basis is sure to trigger bring huge crisis. The guideline is already out for half of teachers to be hired on contract basis or appointed for limited period. The guideline appears in the draft proposal released by Institutional Development Plan(IDP), as part of the national education policy.
Plans are on anvil to hack at roots of UGC and All India Technical Education Council, and create a Higher Studies Council. As part of that move, the draft was, with directions from IDP, prepared by a committee overseen by AC Pandey - the Director to Inter-University Accelerator or Centre that comes under UGC.
That draft also provides for hiring as Visiting Professor, individuals from research and professional fields. The All India Teachers’ Association Committee has already made known how contractual employment would lead to widescale corruption and nepotism. We already see how Kar Sevaks are being wriggled into film and culture establishments.
UGC;s cancellation of fellowships en masse is the beginning of this process. Eventually, the fellowships faced with shuttering will include : E,meritus Fellowship. Dr. S Radhakrishnan Fellowship in Humanities and Social Science, Women’s Research Post Doctral Fellowship, SC/ST Research Post Graduate Fellowship, national fellowship for ST students and research fellowships meant for students from the SC and Adivasi communities. The disdainful attitude toward the Humanities stream is repulsive. Besides, funds currently for research is extremely inadequate.
No country can go forward by neglecting science, technology and humanities. The UGC move is rather appalling in such wide context. The Modi government has clamped the Education sector its with its typical ‘stop funding for’ cliché. The Human Resources Department and Central government should not be party to such measures that run contrary to wellbeing of the society and nation. It is also of grave concern that majority of the repealed fellowships were meant for the poor and marginalized sections. It is a continuance of Modi’s pro-rich and pro-upper caste regime,
The sabotage of rights in the educational sector should be seen together with employment denial. It was clarified in Parliament how over nine lakh posts lie vacant across central government establishments. Incidentally, these vacancies are allowed to let be despite countrywide protests over acute unemployment and the
Modi govt’s response is rather childish when it says there is no definite statistics on SC/ST deprivation in the private sector.
