Privatisation of higher education in Assam
Dr Akhil Ranjan Dutta
The Government of Assam enacted the Private University Act 2007 and also
framed the Private University Rules 2007 opening up the domain of higher
education for private sector. Indeed, higher education, both at the level of
undergraduate as well as post-graduate learning is already open for private
operation without, however, having the right of issuing degrees. These private
institutions are affiliated to the public/private universities either inside or
outside the State and they avail degrees from the affiliating universities. The
universities from the South are also operating in the State through
correspondence or distant learning without due scrutiny and control of the
public authority in the State. Now, by enacting the Private University Act
2007, the Government has given the most needed legal sanctity to the
institutions doing business and earning profit in the domain of higher
education.
Taking the logic of private as the sole mantra for disowning the public
responsibility by the elected Government towards the domain education in
general and higher education in particular, the State Government has been
playing a dirty game of self-indictment to legitimise the effort towards
privatisation of higher education. For example, the Chief Minister of Assam is
of the view that as the State universities like Gauhati University have proved
to be a burden on the public exchequer of the State so the best way before them
is to draw a lesson from the upcoming private institutions like Manipal
University or Amity. He has even gone to the extent of suggestion that as the
private schools are performing many times better than the government aided
schools, so time has now come for the people to realise the significance and
also inevitability of the private universities. His pride over the enactment of
the Private University Act also lies on this self-indictment.
This was the root behind the recent developments in Gauhati University where
the Vice-Chancellor of the University was virtually forced to resign facing an
unmanageable financial crunch both as the fronts of recurring and also
developmental expenses. The available statistics reveals that this premier
institution of higher education has been running in deficit for years together
now. The deficit over the years is increasing alarmingly. For example, in the
year 2001-02, the deficit in the recurring expenses i.e. meeting the salary
component was Rs 7.12 crore which is estimated to increase to the tune of Rs
10.97 crore in the financial year 2007-08. Resultantly, the accumulated deficit
of Gauhati University at this front has gone up to the tune of Rs 68.31 crore
from the year 2001-2 to 2007-08. This deficit is spread over the payment of
salary, pension, retirement benefit, enhanced DA etc. As fallout, the
University has failed to fill up the regular vacancies, mostly in the
teaching departments; has been failing to pay pension and other retirement
benefits regularly. Even leave encasement is yet to be paid to the retired
employees for years together now. The situation has now deteriorated to the
extent that within a year or two from now the University will fail to pay
pension to its employees. Under such circumstances, the University has been
forced to divert the CPF and insurance premium from time to time to meet the
recurring deficit.
The Vision Document prepared by Gauhati University, which has occupied the
centre state in the recent past, is all good and it will definitely give the
most urgently needed flesh and flavour to the university system. However, one
needs to keep in mind that the recurring expenses constitute the lifeline of
any institution including the University system. The deficit in recurring
expenses put strain in this lifeline of the University system. Under the logic
of privatisation the Government is gradually withdrawing its responsibility
from this sphere of meeting the recurring expenses. The recent uprising around
the issue of resignation of the Vice-Chancellor, GU, Prof Amarjyoti Choudhury
has well focused on the apathy of the Government towards the domain of higher
education. But, it has not pin-pointedly focused on the responsibility of the
Government towards meeting the recurring expenses. Until and unless such a
commitment is ensured from the end of the Government the
University will very often face the crisis of keeping the lifeline working
without an artificial backup system. The Chief Minister now takes pride in
enacting the Private University Act 2007. However, the past experiences in
different States, particularly in the State of Sattishgarh, where hundreds of
private universities came up over night, showed how they could commit fraud in
the name of higher education. The Government of Assam which has failed to
ensure accountability of its own institutions, cannot be believed to have the
capacity to ensure efficiency, accountability and commitment from the end of
private universities. The private universities will not be much different from
the private nursing homes, which are profiteering over peoples distress in the
State today. As is the case with the Government hospitals and medical colleges,
the teachers and experts of the public higher educational institutions may also
indulge in illegal practice of providing service in
private universities violating the norms of the parent institutions. The
anomalies in the domain of medical institutions should have been enough to warn
the government not to go in hurry for private universities.
The Private University Act 2007, enacted by the Government of Assam has serious
loopholes. This should have been debated in the public domain. But,
unfortunately it has not yet been debated. First of all, the Private
Universities will promote only marked-oriented subjects. The basic disciplines
of fundamental research like physics, chemistry, political science, economics,
philosophy etc will be out of their courses and curriculum and even those are
incorporated they will be in the periphery. But, it is these disciplines, which
have immensely contributed towards providing dynamism for the upward mobility
of civilisation. An obsession with market and profitability and for that matter
even obsession with mere employability will result in the real civilisational
crisis.
Second, these will be the institutions of profiteering. There will access only
of the privileged. The Act specifically says that all expenses will be met by
private universities own fund. Where from these fund will come? Definitely
from the fee of the students. How can they earn profit? Only by levying
unreasonably high fee. Will the Government have any control over this? The Act
and its rules are silent here.
Thirdly, the quality of the faculty and the infrastructure will always be in
doubt. Today. Many private nursing homes in Guwahati proclaim that they are
also engaged in research. This is definitely a fraud. Most of the private
nursing homes are run by adhoc arrangements i.e. by floating doctors. The most
sophisticated hospitals do not have the required number of physicians in all
departments. The private universities will also be not very much different from
it. As is the case with the private schools, there are grounds to apprehend
that adhoc teachers will run the private universities. There is also no
guarantee that the teachers and other staff will be paid as per norms of
regulatory institutions. How can higher education excel under such
circumstances? Therefore, the on going developments in Gauhati University are
unfolding the emerging contradictions in the policies enacted by the Government
in the domain of higher education. Time is ripe now to give an appropriate
direction to the peoples movements fighting against the odds in education in
general and higher education in particular.
(The author teaches Political Science at Gauhati University)
(The Assam Tribune,27.10.2007)
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