BENGALURU: City-based educationists have strongly criticised the Karnataka government’s proposal to open eight new government medical colleges under the Public–Private Partnership (PPP) model in Kolar, Tumakuru, Vijayapura, Davanagere, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Bengaluru Rural, and Vijayanagara districts.
Educationist Niranjanaradhya V P condemned the proposal, calling the PPP model “fraudulent” and unsuitable for core sectors like education and healthcare. “When private entities take control, education becomes a business rather than a social right,” he said. “It deprives marginalised communities of access and turns learning into a privilege of the wealthy. This is very inhuman and goes against the basic tenets of the Constitution. Where is natural justice? Where is equality of opportunity?”
He further pointed out that privatisation in medical education promotes a profit-driven mindset among students. “When one spends crores to complete medical studies, the motive becomes recovering that money instead of serving the people,” he said. “Education should be state-funded, state-managed, and accessible to all without discrimination. Otherwise, the entire system becomes dependent on affordability, and those who cannot pay are left without basic rights.”
“The government’s proposal for private-public partnership medical colleges certainly leads to privatisation. While granting permissions, the government should impose conditions, such as allocating 50 percent of seats to students from marginalized communities or reserving 50% through the government entrance test,” opined Vasudev Sharma, a child rights activist.
Terming the move a step towards privatisation and commercialisation of education, members of All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) shared that the PPP model, in the name of development, was “a tool to hand over public resources to private profiteers.”
The organisation warned that such arrangements would lead to exorbitant fees, declining academic standards, and denial of access to students from poor and middle-class families.
The student organisation has condemned the decision and concluded that instead of succumbing to the dictates of corporate lobbies, the government must allocate adequate funds from the public exchequer to strengthen and expand fully government-run medical institutions.
