ABVP for education foundation

SHIMLA, Sept 4: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ABVP urged the Government of India to set up national education foundation and e...

SHIMLA, Sept 4: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ABVP urged the Government of India to set up national education foundation and education development bank to extend financial support to needy students and education institutions. A scheme of loans and scholarships should also be introduced, the ABVP demanded.

Addressing a press conference here today, the all India general secretary of the ABVP Mohinder Kumar said a 22-point memorandum had been submitted to the Union Minister of Human Resource Development in this regard. He said absence of an effective organisational machinery had been stated to be a major factor responsible for the failure of earlier policies of education.

Mohinder Kumar said high powered autonomous education authority was needed in the form of a national education foundation vested with power to guide, monitor and coordinate the implementation of policies. He said same was absolutely necessary from the point of view of keeping the administration of education free from the stronghold of bureaucratic control on the one hand and the politics on the other.

He said high education system needed comprehensive reforms. He regretted the reports of various commissions were gathering dust in the ministry.

Referring to the proposed education development bank, Mohinder Kumar said it should be on the pattern of Industrial Development Bank to extend financial support to needy students and education institutions.

Detailing the various programmes to be organised during the golden jubilee year of the ABVP, the all India general secretary said it proposed to hold a two-day conference of students and youth of SAARC countries besides Tibet in July next year at New Delhi. The main object of this conference would be to develop a feeling of fraternity among the students and youth of the South eastern region.

An all India conference of the students was also being organised at Mumbai from December 25 to 27 in which students teachers, educationists and officials of the HRD Ministry would also participate. Prior to this, five all India seminars would also be held in different regions of the country.

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Replying to a question, the ABVP leader said it was the duty of the university teachers and the HRD Ministry to sort out the issue of strike as the students were the worst sufferers. He said teachers should also not be adamant as they had already lost sympathy. He regretted a section of teachers of a particular ideology were holding the key in current impasse.

Mohinder Kumar said academic atmosphere should be restored immediately. He did not agree with the demand of striking teachers that the Centre should bear all the expenses of the new grades when 20 per cent of the expenditure had always been borne by the states.

Mohinder Kumar said that ABVP would react to the situation after the September 5 if the strike did not end. The PIL would also be filed at various places. He said the HRD Ministry had already accepted the demand regarding payment of arrears from January 1, 1996.