University body opposes education under GATS

BHUBANESWAR: The All India University Employees’ Confederation (AIUEC), an umbrella body of university employees’ unions, on Monday condemned, what it termed, “reorientation of the education policy in the country.”
AIUEC president and former Lok Sabha member Bhabani Hota said the Narendra Modi government’s new approach will kill the public funded education system in India.
Stating that AIUEC is opposed to the negotiation underway in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for establishment of a mega trade agreement on services, including educational services, under the General Agreement in Trade in Services (GATS), Hota said “If brought under the WTO/GATS mandate, education in general and higher education in particular would be a tradable service only and no longer a public good.
“The Union government is hell-bent on reorienting education policy which is meant to cause slow-death of public funded education and instead encouraging and facilitating private sector to take over education in India,” he said in a statement.
Hota said the process to kill public sector role in education had started in instalments since the days of introducing New Economic policy in 1991. The present Government is simply carrying forward the policy of its predecessor in a more aggressive form through its proposed Education Policy 2015, he said.
To oppose the government move and create awareness, the AIUEC will organize a ‘national convention in defence of education’ in New Delhi on October 14..About 1000 delegates including 200 from the AIUEC from all over India would be participating, the former MP said.