[Reader-list] Fwd: Invite for AISA's and AIFRTE's Public Hearing Against UPA's Agenda to Commercialize Education

[Venugopalan K M]

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  *A Public Hearing on the Right to Education Bill and UPA's Proposals
Towards Commercialization of Education*

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*August 7, Jantar Mantar, 11 am Onwards*





Dear sir/madam



We are writing to you with regard to the 100-day agenda announced by the
Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD). Kapil Sibal has promised
‘radical’ reforms in the country’s education system - these ‘reforms’ are
being touted as an important step in deciding the destiny of the students
and youth of the country. It is clear that the UPA Government in its new
term is all set this time, through ‘educational reforms’ to complete its
coveted agenda of privatizing and commercializing education.



As you are well aware, the ‘reforms’ in education which the MHRD is
advocating are nothing new. *They are but a ruse for the government to
escape its responsibility towards education and deliver it entirely into
private hands.* More than a decade of anti-privatization struggles by
students have forced Governments to change their vocabulary; to ‘dress up’
their privatization-commercialization agenda in a grand cloak of ‘reform’.



One of the most trumpeted proposals by the Congress government is to pass
the ‘Right to Education’ (RTE) bill, which is well on its way to becoming a
legally mandated Act. *The RTE has been passed unanimously by the Rajya
Sabha, with no opposition whatsoever.* *The RTE in its present form has
several fundamental, structural problems and ambiguities that shelve it of
any potential to really provide fundamental right to education as mandated
by our constitution and the landmark 1993 Unnikrishnan judgment of the
Supreme Court. **Despite this, the RTE was passed unanimously in Rajya Sabha
with almost no debate, which clearly revealed a near-consensus in the
parliament to support the farce that the UPA is peddling in the name of
“Right to Education”.*



What is shocking is that the UPA as well as the NDA government before it are
trying their level best to undermine and restrict the scope of the landmark
Unnikrishnan judgment of the Supreme Court and the fundamental right of
education underlined in the constitution under the garb of this "Right to
Education Bill".



In this context, several groups who have been campaigning against the
government's attempts to escape its responsibility of providing for
education joined together at a meeting held in Hyderabad on 21-22 June 2009
to form the "All India Forum for Right to Education" (AIFRTE). *Noted
educationist Prof. Anil Sadgopal and political scientist Prof. Hargopal of
HCU (Hyderabad Central University) are co-Presidents of this forum*, which
includes several teachers, educationists and students. AISA is also part of
the AIFRTE.



As part of the nation-wide campaign against the UPA government's covert
plans to sell out our education system to the private sector in bits and
pieces, the AIFRTE has been organizing several protest demonstrations and
meetings all over the country*. In this regard, AISA along with AIFRTE is
organizing a Public Hearing (Jan Sunwai) on August 7, the last day of the
present session of Parliament*.  This pubic hearing will be held at Jantar
Mantar from 11 am onwards, where intellectuals, teachers, students, and
residents of Delhi from different sections of society will participate.



AISA and AIFRTE appeal to you to join this Public Hearing. We are attaching
with this e-mail a preliminary note on this issue, as well as a copy of the
memorandum which we handed over to the Lok Sabha speaker.


   Regards,
Ravi Rai
General Secretary
All India Students' Association
9868661628








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-- 
Regards,
Ravi Rai
General Secretary
All India Students' Association
9868661628



-- 
-- Shankar



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