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Journalism of Courage
Earlier this month, the campus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) once again resounded with slogans and songs of resistance, as the institute witnessed its first major protest since 2015, when the students went on strike for months to protest the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the president of FTII Society. The Indian Express explains the issues against which the students were up in arms this time, and how they managed a ‘win’ in their quest to keep film education affordable.
What was the recent protest at FTII about?
How much is the JET fee?
This year, the JET fee ranges between Rs 4,000 to 8,000 for general category and OBC students, and between Rs 1,250 to Rs 3,125 for Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste students.
The FTII, which conducts the JET, has categorised its courses in three groups. It has fixed the application fee at Rs 4,000 for those choosing to apply for a course in only one group, Rs 8,000 for those applying for courses in two different groups and Rs 10,000 for those choosing to apply for courses in three different groups. The JET fee for students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are Rs 1,250, Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,125, respectively.
Students have protested the FTII’s entrance test fee and pointed out that the JET is the costliest entrance examination to any public-funded institute in India. For example, the JET fee is over twice the fee for the second-most expensive entrance exam to a public-funded institute, the JEE (Advanced), which is Rs 1,900.
Why is the JET fee so high?
There is no apparent reason for this, apart from the FTII administration’s attempt to generate revenue. Information obtained using the Right To Information (RTI) Act has shown that the cost of conducting JET is much lower than the money FTII collects from aspirants.
For example, in 2019, the institute collected Rs 1.68 crore from aspirants, but had to spend only Rs 29.61 lakh to conduct the JET, thus earning Rs 1.38 crore in profits.
What’s the annual fee to study filmmaking at FTII?
Apart from the high JET fee, the students have also complained about the annual fee for various film and television courses at the institute, as well as the rate at which the fees are increased every year. While a decision on hiking the annual fee by 10 per cent was taken in 2010, the move was put on hold after realising the financial pressure it would put on students.
In 2016, current FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola proposed to implement the annual fee hike. The annual fee for various film and television courses has gone up to Rs 1.18 lakh which, students say, will be unaffordable for many aspirants. According to students, the high fee has made the FTII ‘exclusive’ and restricted to candidates from high-income and middle-income groups, with stable family incomes. The discriminatory fee structure prohibits students from poor families from applying, and the effect is most adverse on socially backward communities.
What has the hunger strike by students yielded?
On December 16, students of FTII and SRFTI had stopped all academic work and launched a relay hunger strike. Five students of FTII continued the hunger strike for five days, before FTII Governing Council (GC) Chairman B P Singh met them and promised to deliberate on the issues raised by them in a special GC meeting. At the meeting, held on Friday in Mumbai, an in-principle decision was taken to reduce the JET fee.
“The quantum of reduction will be decided by January 6, 2020. Further, it was decided that the tuition fee for 2020 for regular courses in FTII will be reviewed. This review will be completed by March 6, 2020. A five-member Committee, headed by chairman of the FTII Governing Council, has been set up to discuss both the issues and arrive at a decision,” said Bhupendra Kainthola, FTII director.
