CHENNAI: City educationists have come down heavily on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for neglecting primary education in the Union budget, which effectively ignored measures to implement the Right to Education Act (RTE) with a meagre hike in funds for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
Bernard D Sami, Senior Fellow at Loyola Institute of Social Sciences, said only Rs 1,000 crore has been allotted for SSA, which is insufficient. A big push was given to higher education in the form of a dedicated Higher Education Financing Agency, which allows private players to invest in the infrastructure and buildings.
“Also, RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Sikhsha Abhiyan) received an 18 percent increase in funds,” said Sami. Prince Gajendra Babu, educationist and general secretary for the State platform for common school system, said the policy statements in the budget document had nothing to do with education for public schools and colleges.
“Providing market access to higher education under WTO (GATS) is the guiding principle even in the budget. They have provided for several Navodaya Vidyalaya in the budget but nothing for rural students. When there is no equitable access then how come they are looking for more learning outcome,” he said.
“The Kothari Commission was formed in 1964-66 to form a common school system. It is now 2017 and still there is no mention in the budget,” he said. “They have mentioned in the budget that the learning outcomes will be standardized, but without providing adequate funding for equitable access to primary education what is the use of asking about learning outcomes?” he questioned. “They are going to brand rural students as not being academically strong without equitable access, which is unfair,” he said.
N Mani, Head of Economics department in Erode Arts and Science College, said that as far as higher education is concerned the government should address the issue of access and quality. “There aren’t any major funds for research for universities and colleges. The few projects that were selected were not sanctioned last year. They have just been approved,” he said.
“The UGC needs to be strengthened and not restructured. The purpose of setting up the UGC is for granting funds for higher education including research and development and for increasing the quality of higher education. By restructuring they are going to set up separate bodies,” Mani lamented.
He also criticised the concept of according autonomous status for institutions. “In Tamil Nadu there are more autonomous institutions which are poor in administration and academics. The private players are using this autonomous criteria for profit. Even if autonomy is given, it should be based on careful consideration, he said.
