Press Release, 29 October: Teachers and students from across the country come together for a Convention on Crisis in Higher Education

The JOINT FORUM FOR MOVEMENT ON EDUCATION successfully
organised a Mass National Convention of all national organisations of
teachers, students and parents who are active in elementary, primary,
secondary and tertiary levels of Education in India. The well-attended
Convention took place at the Mavalankar Auditorium in New Delhi today,
October 29, 2018.

A composite platform of 25
unions in the Education Sector, the JFME has been created to build a
mass movement of all stakeholders in Public-funded Education and
campaign to restore Public Trust, Equity, Access, Scientific Temper and
Constitutional values in Education. The Convention served to bring home
the acute crisis facing Education in India and the concomitant threat to
Constitutional idea of India as well as democratic aspirations of its
people, brought about by recurrent official neglect, rampant
commercialisation, coercive centralisation of authority and
communalisation prevalent in Education Policy and Governance. Teachers
and students from states such as Maharashtra, UP, Bihar, Orissa,
Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jharkhand, Punjab, Assam and Meghalaya
participated in the Convention and shared their experiences.

Former
Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University and Rajya Sabha member Prof.
Bhalchandra Mungekar delivered the Keynote Address in which he slammed
successive governments for neglecting the role and potential of
Education in nation-building. He argued that the deplorable state of
Indian Education is the result of continuous reduction in budgetary
allocations, commodification and encouragement to market forces in
policy, and corporatisation of governance. Prof. Mungekar also pointed
out the deeply worrying fact that 37% teaching posts across
Public-funded colleges and universities in India remain vacant.
Deteriorating pupil-teacher ratio in classrooms and contractualisation
of teaching jobs has led to a sharp decline in the quality of Education.
On the other hand, coercive interference of the State in matters of
appointments and diktats related to curricula and mode of
teaching-learning has resulted in the absence of creativity and
intellectual autonomy. Prof. Mungekar expressed regret at the fact that
the appointment of Vice-Chancellors across central and state
universities is done without a modicum of transparency. While expressing
solidarity with JFME, he emphasised the moral responsibility of all
concerned citizens to strengthen the collective voice of unions
struggling to defend Public-funded Education in India, prevent the
closure/ merger of schools and colleges, safeguard the rights of
students and teachers, strengthen institutional accountability and put
pressure on the government to extend the Right to Education to Higher
Education.

The Convention was  addressed by
Nilotpal Basu (former Rajya Sabha member and leader of the CPIM), D Raja
(former Rajya Sabha member and leader of CPI) and Rajeev Gowda ( former
Rajya Sabha member and leader of INC). Kavita Krishnan of CPI-ML,
Sudhakar Reddy of CPI, Pratap Samal of SUCI-Communist and Mrigank from
CPI (ML) New Democracy also addressed the Convention and extended
solidarity to the Movement. The day-long Convention saw the
participation of the following organisations:

AIFUCTO,
FEDCUTA, DUTA, All India Federation of Retired University and College
Teachers Organizations, All India University Employees Confederation,
School Teachers Federation of India, All India Secondary Teachers
Federation, All India Federation of Elementary Teachers Organizations,
Indian Public Service Employees Federation, All India Anganwadi Workers
Association, AISA, AISF, AIDSO, NSUI, SFI, Krantikari Yuva Sangathan,
All India Minority Students Association, All India Backward Students
Association, Ambedkar Group of Students, PACHAAS, PDSU, AIFRTE, AISEC,
Jan Sangharsh Morcha, Bharatiya Abhibhavak Sangh, Delhi Abhibhavak Sangh
and State Platform for Common School System, Tamil Nadu.