Press Release
National Assembly in Defence of Education
14 October 2015
Around a thousand people representing a large number of organisations responded to the call for a day-long National Assembly in Defence of Education which was convened today at the Mavlankar Auditorium. This National Assembly was the result of an appeal launched earlier this month by AIFUCTO and FEDCUTA along with several eminent citizens who included S.P. Shukla, Indira Jaising, P.M. Bhargava, Sashi Kumar, Ashok Vaypeyi , Nirupam Sen, Hiren Gohain, Gopal Guru, Amiya Bagchi, G. Haragopal and Upendra Baxi (see details in attached Appeal).
Prominent among the participating organisations were the All India University Employees Confederation (AIUEC), School Teachers Federation of India (STFI), All India People’s Science Network/ Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE), All India Save Education Committee (AISEC), Forum of Engineering Professionals (FEP), and several student organisations including AISA, AIDSO, KYS, and SFI. Several other organisations and eminent citizens sent in messages of support and solidarity and expressed their willingness to join the campaign that the Assembly has resolved to initiate.
The National Assembly was called to launch a nationwide movement against the Government’s move to open up education commercially as a tradable service under WTO-GATS. This move, if allowed, will result in the loss of the sovereign and independent prerogative of the Indian State to frame national policies and regulate education in the interests of the people; it will also undermine the constitutional right to education for every citizen. In its Resolution (text attached), the National Assembly resolved to form a National People’s Platform in Defence of Education, a nationwide coalition of organisations and individuals, to steer an intensive and widespread public campaign in all corners of India, culminating in a Mass Rally to the Parliament on 25 November 2015.
Speakers at the Assembly included Nirupam Sen, Dinesh Abrol (Working Group on Patents), Madhu Prasad (AIFRTE), Biswajit Dhar (JNU), Nandita Narain, Tapati Mukhopadhya, Sachidanand Sinha, B.S. Hota (AIUEC), Narendra Sharma (AISEC), Baddruzoda Khan (MP), C.N. Bharti (STFI), Bikram (SFI), Bhaskaranand (AIDSO), Madhu Paranjape (BUCTA), Sucheta De (AISA), Om Prakash (All Rajasthan University Association), Pramod Gouri (AIPSM/BGVS), Subhas (KYS), Sudipto Bhattacharya (Vishwabharti University), Biswajit Dhar, Soumen Chattopadhyay (JNU).
The speakers pointed out that the sinister move to commit education under WTO-GATS as well as other bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral international trade agreements will oblige the Government to follow iniquitous clauses of Free Trade in goods and services against the interests of citizens, will make such commercial obligations irreversible despite public pressure in the future, and will compel the Government of the day to surrender its right to frame National Policy in the interest of citizens. They also furnished evidence of the fact that these trade agreements are being negotiated without the knowledge of the Parliament, thus short-circuiting public debate and democratic process.
Tarun Kumar Patra, President (AIFUCTO)
Nandita Narain, President (FEDCUTA)
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