Teachers express concern over key higher education reform bills

Updated on: Friday, August 17, 2012

Teachers participating at an all-India convention expressed concern over key higher education reform bills the government is pushing in parliament and said if passed they would "institutionalise privatisation".

Besides expressing apprehension over the education bills, they also slammed the government for its "anti-democratic" approach to teachers' service conditions and academic freedom "to overcome any kind of opposition to its designs".

The Bills, if passed, they said will exclude a majority of the people from higher education.

Among the bills that are pending in parliament entail some of HRD Minister Kapil Sibal's flagship reforms including the Higher Education and Research Bill, Educational Tribunal Bill and the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill.

Representatives from various universities came together at the convention organised by the Delhi University Teachers Association to discuss the higher education reform bills.

In a resolution adopted at the end of the day-long convention, the teachers charged the bills amounted to government's attempts to "withdraw from its all-important responsibility to educate people".

It said the government was pushing through "legislations which will fold back the nation's achievements in public-funded higher education and turn over the valuable educational resources of the nation into the hands of foreign and local private profiteers".

The teachers also backed DUTA's convention and took note of Delhi University Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh's relationship with DUTA.

"The convention condemns the negative attitude of the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University towards elected teachers' representatives, which he expresses by not meeting with DUTA, the most democratic teachers' organisation of the country, for the last one year," it said.

Teachers express concern over key higher education reform bills

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