By Tynshain K Lyngdoh
The Meghalaya government and colluding college managements have declared war on the youth of our state through their shameless push towards privatization. At a time when unemployment rates are soaring, contractual jobs offer barely ₹15,000 as monthly salaries, and families are struggling to make ends meet, these institutions are planning to make education a luxury item affordable only to the wealthy elite. This is not policy reform – this is Educational genocide targeting the poor and middle class.
The perfect storm of student misery
While our youth face the harshest job market in decades, with degrees becoming worthless due to lack of employment opportunities, the government and college managements are conspiring to make education even more expensive. Students graduating with degrees are lucky to find jobs paying ₹15,000 per month, yet these same institutions want to charge lakhs of rupees in fees annually. This is economic terrorism against the youth of Meghalaya. The government’s silence and complicity in this privatization drive shows complete disregard for the economic reality facing our families. How can college fees increase to ₹1,50,000 per year when the average graduate struggles to earn ₹15,000 per month? This math doesn’t work for anyone except the greedy college managements and their political patrons.
Government betrayal reaches new lows
The Meghalaya government’s betrayal of student interests has reached unprecedented levels of callousness. While claiming to support education, the government is actively enabling college managements to abandon UGC-sanctioned posts and embrace privatization. This is not governance – this is active participation in the systematic destruction of educational accessibility. The government’s deficit grant-in-aid system was designed to keep education affordable, yet now they are allowing institutions to opt out of this very system that protected students. Where is the accountability? Where is the protection of student interests? The government has become a willing accomplice in depriving pricing education for 80% of Meghalaya’s population.
College managements: Greed personified
College managements in Meghalaya have transformed from educational stewards to profit-hungry vultures feeding on student misery. These institutions, built with public money and sustained by taxpayer support, now view students as cash cows to be milked for maximum profit. Their abandonment of UGC-sanctioned posts is not about institutional improvement – it’s about eliminating accountability and maximizing exploitation. These managements show zero empathy for students struggling with unemployment and underemployment. Their greed has made them completely blind to the economic crisis facing our youth.
Brutal reality for students
For a student from a family earning ₹15,000-25,000 per month, current college fees represent a significant but manageable sacrifice. Parents work multiple jobs, cut expenses, and make financial sacrifices to educate their children. However, privatization will transform this manageable burden into complete financial ruin. When fees increase from ₹15,000-20,000 per semester to ₹75,000-1,00,000, families will be forced to take loans that will burden students for decades. Students will graduate not just unemployed, but also debt-ridden, creating a generation trapped in financial slavery. This is the future our government and college managements envisage for our youth.
Meritocracy under attack
Privatization represents a direct assault on meritocracy and social justice. Currently, admission to colleges is based on academic merit and entrance examination performance. However, privatization will replace merit with money power, ensuring that only wealthy students can access quality education regardless of their academic abilities. This transformation will create a caste system in education where economic status determines academic opportunity. Talented students from poor families will be systematically excluded from quality education, destroying the social mobility that education is supposed to provide. The government and college managements are actively working to create an educational apartheid system.
Employment crisis multiplied
Meghalaya’s youth already face an employment crisis of unprecedented proportions. Contractual jobs paying ₹15,000 per month are the norm rather than the exception. Unemployment rates among graduates are soaring, with many qualified individuals unable to find work matching their educational qualifications. In this context, making education unaffordable through privatization creates a double tragedy. Students will invest huge sums of money in education only to face unemployment or underemployment upon graduation. This represents not just individual tragedy but societal waste of human potential and resources.
Government hypocrisy exposed
The Meghalaya government publicly claims to support youth development and educational advancement while actively enabling policies that make education inaccessible. This contradiction reveals the government’s true priorities – protecting the interests of college managements and political elites rather than serving the people. Government ministers make speeches about youth empowerment while their policies systematically disempower the youth through unaffordable education. This hypocrisy cannot continue without fierce public resistance and accountability.
Death of social mobility
Grant-in-aid colleges have historically served as engines of social mobility, allowing talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds to rise above their circumstances. Privatization will kill this crucial social function, ensuring that economic status at birth determines educational and career opportunities throughout life The government and college managements are actively working to preserve and strengthen social inequality rather than addressing it through accessible education. This represents a fundamental betrayal of democratic values and social justice principles.
Faculty exploitation and academic decay
The abandonment of UGC-sanctioned posts will lead to massive faculty exploitation as private managements replace experienced, qualified professors with cheap labour. This systematic destruction of academic quality will further devalue degrees and harm student prospects in the job market. Students paying lakhs of rupees for education deserve qualified faculty and quality instruction. However, profit-driven managements will prioritize cost-cutting over quality, ensuring that expensive privatized education delivers sub-standard academic value.
The accountability black hole
Private institutions operate with minimal accountability compared to publicly funded colleges. Without proper oversight, there is nothing to prevent private colleges from becoming diploma mills that prioritize enrolment numbers over educational quality. Students and parents will have no recourse when promised educational standards are not delivered. The government’s role in enabling this accountability vacuum shows complete disregard for student protection and educational quality assurance.
Economic justice under attack
At its core, this privatization drive represents an attack on economic justice and equality. The government and college managements are actively working to create a two-tier educational system where quality education becomes a privilege of the wealthy while the poor are relegated to substandard alternatives or complete exclusion. This economic discrimination will have long-term consequences for Meghalaya’s social fabric and democratic health, creating permanent divisions based on economic status rather than merit or ability.
Need for ruthless resistance
The time for polite protests and diplomatic appeals has passed. The government and college managements have shown they care nothing for student welfare or public interest. Only fierce, uncompromising resistance can stop this educational heist. Students, parents, faculty, and concerned citizens must organize ruthlessly to expose this betrayal and force withdrawal of privatization policies. This is not about opposing change – this is about opposing anti-people policies disguised as reform.
Conclusion: A call to arms
The Meghalaya government and college managements have declared war on the youth of our state. Their privatization agenda, implemented during an unprecedented employment crisis with graduates earning barely ₹15,000 per month, represents one of the most heartless policies in recent memory. This is not about educational improvement or modernization – this is about maximizing profits by exploiting student desperation and family sacrifice. The government’s complicity makes them equally guilty of this educational betrayal.
We demand immediate withdrawal of all privatization policies and restoration of UGC-sanctioned posts. We demand affordable, quality education for all students regardless of economic background. We demand that our government serve the people rather than collude with greedy institutions to destroy educational accessibility.
The youth of Meghalaya will not be sacrificed for profit. We will fight this educational genocide with everything we have.