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Privatisation of education not a solution
Private educational institutions whether in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh or Himachal Pradesh have catered to the elite class only, leaving no place for the downtrodden. The sustenance of private institutes is in doldrums and so they resort to aggressive marketing. To open a private university is easy, but to provide quality education is really an uphill task. The NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) data (64th round) for the years 2007-08 has proved that most of the students (95 per cent in urban and 99 per cent in rural areas) opt for government or government-aided institutions. Under the garb of the so-called economic reforms initiated way back in 1991, there has been an abrupt escalation in the number of private colleges and universities especially in the field of engineering and business administration. Many of these institutions do not have qualified teachers, which is a pre-requisite framed under AICTE/UGC guidelines. Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire, said Yeats. To improve the education system, the government should allocate more funds for education. Only 0.6 per cent of the GDP goes into education, as stated by the writer in the article ‘Private sector has a role to play’ (February 14). The academicians, since the recommendations of the Kothari Commission, have advocated 6 per cent of GDP for education.
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Besides, the curricula require a desperate revamping to suit the industry requirements. The self-financing or private unaided institutions should be subjected to strict control in matters relating to admission, fee structure, content of courses and salary and service conditions of teaching and non-teaching employees. The need of the hour is to appoint teachers who are capable of facing the challenges of global competition. The objective should be to promote inclusive higher education by ensuring fair, transparent and non-exploitative administration in educational institutions. We must build a powerful movement so that the government is forced to abandon its policy of commercialisation of education and ensures real right to education to the youth of our country. SK KHOSLA, Chandigarh II Thanks to the mushroom growth of private universities in Himachal Pradesh, these institutes of higher learning seem like fish markets rather than temples of light, liberty and learning, as Benjamin Disraeli put it. Bluntly speaking, Benjamin’s vital three seem to have been displaced by three Fs - fight, fright and foolery. TARA CHAND, Ambota (Una) III Many universities are not able to declare results on time because the strength of students has increased tremendously in the last decade. The teaching as well as the non-teaching staff is not proportional to the number of students. Many teachers are not interested in the examination duty because of the tax liability. Those who perform the duty pay the tax on the remuneration drawn for performing the duty. Similarly, nobody wants to evaluate the answer sheets of the students. The authorities should call the remuneration for examination duty as honorarium instead of remuneration. Examinations should be conducted in the working days and the evaluation of answer sheets should be done in the vacations. In this way every teacher should be engaged in the examinations as well as evaluation of answer sheets. Every university must employ its own staff to prepare the results to maintain secrecy. Dr HARINDER SINGH KANG,
Yamunanagar
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