GATS deal will make education a commodity, says academician

Chennai: Describing the Central Government’s initiative to sign off on the WTO GATS agreement as an epistemological attack on the socio-economic meaning of education, noted academician Anil Sadgopal said that there will be no place for social justice agenda as a consequence.

Sadgopal, who is the former dean, faculty of education, Delhi University, was addressing a seminar on the topic ‘Challenges facing higher education’ in the city on Thursday.

India is expected to sign the GATS agreement on December 15 in Nairobi effectively making education a service while students become consumers of the service and will be charged user fees, just like in any trade deal.

“The forces of globalisation is making an unholy alliance with the communal forces. The GATS agreement will change education from being a tool for social development into a tradeable commodity... A poor man’s family will be helped if his child is skilled to earn a few more pennies. The Central government which is in a hurry to do that is not showing that urgency to eliminate poverty,” he said. The GATS agreement, Sadgopal said, would replace UGC with an Independent Regulatory Authority.