MFUCTO to tell people what ails education

The MFUCTO has also expressed its solidarity with the present vice-chancellor of Shivaji University, Dr D N Dhanagare. It has “studied” the resolution adopted by one of its constituent units, Shivaji University Teachers’ Association (SUTA), preparing teachers for a massive agitation against the government’s “ill-conceived” move and “machinations” to remove Dr Dhanagare.

The new economic policy, its stress on privatisation and the rolling back of the state from funding the social sector, has had an especially bad impact on higher education, which the government considers a non-priority sector, MFUCTO said. Several institutions of higher education have been allowed to be opened in the self-financing sector and huge fees allowed to be imposed. Such high fees are beyond the reach of the common people, the Federation has noted, giving specific instances of professional colleges including engineering, medicine and BEd colleges, “most of which are controlled by persons having political leverage in Maharashtra today and whose commitment to education is non-existent.”

This, MFUCTO maintained, has led to high fees, admission-linked donations and other monetary transactions related to admissions and examinations.

In this context, the growing strength of the teachers’ democratic movement and their entry in a big way into university bodies such as the Senate, Management Council, etc has resulted in agitations and the exposure of corruption, MFUCTO said. One case it has cited is of the Shivaji University, where teachers have conducted a sustained struggle against corruption. The vice-chancellor of Shivaji University, Dr D N Dhanagare, has been supported by SUTA in his attempts to fight corrupt practices in the University and affiliated colleges. In other universities also, teachers have rejected corruption by voting into the Senates honest representatives in overwhelming majorities, MFUCTO said.

However, corrupt managements and other authorities benefitting from the business of education are trying to stop these attempts by teachers and honest vice-chancellors like Dr Dhanagare, the MFUCTO has pointed out. This, MFUCTO feels, is the reason an ordinance has been issued all of a sudden to stop elections and amend the Act. The Federation said it would firmly oppose the government move to amend the Act because the intentions of the state in doing so were malafide.

The MFUCTO will meet again to consider SUTA’s proposal to boycott the ensuing examinations.