KANNUR / THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ripples within the CPM over allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in Kerala continued to spread on Wednesday with the party state secretary staunchly defending the proposal and the higher education minister, besides justifying SFI’s opposition to the plan, asserting that many aspects need to be examined before taking a decision on the issue.
“There is no policy shift on the opening up of the education sector to foreign universities. We don’t have any confusion either. We have got the nod from the politburo on this. If we allow in foreign universities, our students would not need to go out of the state to pursue higher education,” CPM state secretary MV Govindan said.
Defending the SFI, which put the government in a spot declaring that there was no need for foreign universities in the state, Higher Education Minister R Bindu said, “As a student outfit, it’s the responsibility of the SFI to voice its concerns and to ensure that they are addressed.”
“It needs to be examined whether such foreign universities would be driven by commercial interests and students would be cheated. Only after examining these aspects can a decision be taken,” said Bindu.
The minister said only financial aspects regarding the matter have been declared in the budget and it is not a policy declaration.
‘Media showing higher edu sector in poor light’
Bindu also advised the media not to be concerned about the LDF’s higher education policy. Asked whether the higher education department was kept in the dark on the budget declaration related to foreign universities, Bindu said she was not obliged to disclose such details to the media.
The minister also alleged that a section of the media was portraying the state’s higher education sector in poor light, and conducting educational fairs with commercial motives to recruit students to overseas educational institutions
Talking to reporters in Kannur, Govindan said the CPM has been in favour of private investment in education sector.
“Privatisation in the education sector is nothing new. It exisited even during the time of EMS. Nonetheless, we will not allow exploitation in the name of privatisation, and ensure that merit is the sole criterion,” he said.
The CPM state secretary added the party would hold discussions with SFI leaders on the issue in the coming days.