Students welfare organisations and educational activists from the city conducted a rally protesting government’s move
World Trade Organisation (Photo: AP)
Chennai: As India and other members will finalize the Doha round of WTO agreement in December at Nairobi which many feel will result in commercialisation of higher education, members of the All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE), students welfare organisations and educational activists from the city conducted a rally protesting government’s move on Sunday.
Nearly 300 students, intellectuals and educational activists gathered in front of the Rajarathinam stadium from where they marched till the new Secretariat. Students from several schools carried placards which read, ‘WTO! Quit our education’, ‘Govt of India, withdraw offer given to GATS’ and ‘Don’t provide market access in education’.
P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of the state platform for the Common School System who led the rally said, “Government will change all laws so to implement the provisions of the GATS agreement. We urge government to withdraw this, otherwise higher education will no longer be in the reach of ordinary people.” He also added that native languages and knowledge would perish.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr S.S. Rajagopalan said that the main objective of education is to solve the problems of society. The present educational system is yet unable to do so. If foreign players come to India, they will focus on the education needed by their country and not on the problems faced by India. Therefore poverty will grow and unemployment will increase. It is another form of imperialism practiced by developed countries, he said. Many other educational activists cited the exorbitant fees charged by schools and the introduction of play schools and said that education has already been commercialised.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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