SHILLONG: The All India Federation of University and College Teachers Association (AIFUCTO) Zonal meet held on Saturday opposed the education policy of Centre .
Inaugurating the meet, Prof. Kesab Bhattacharya, who was the chief guest, spoke at length on the present education scenario.
He said that the proposed National Education policy stresses on exclusive and not inclusive education. He expressed his anguish at the way the Central Government is pushing Indian higher education towards privatisation and corporatization.
The sinister designs are sought to be legitimised through proposed actions like doing away with long established institutions such as UGC and AICTE and replacing them by bodies like HEFA (Higher Education Funding Agency) and HEERA (Higher Education Empowerment Regulatory Authority). Prof. Arun Kumar, general secretary, AIFUCTO, said that the proposal for graded autonomy for university and colleges and categorization of universities into 1, 2 and 3 is another dangerous move to create divisions among the ranks of the teachers and make easy the path of privatisation of higher education. The issue of prolonged delay in the publication of recommendations of Seventh UGC Pay Review Committee and other long pending demands also came up during the meeting.
The zonal secretary NE Zone-1 Prof. M.Lokendro Singh said that this is a historic moment since all the representatives from the six states namely Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh,Mizoram , Meghalaya and Assam participated which he said in turn reflects the concern of teachers regarding the current developments taking place in education.
College teachers across the state participated at the meet which resolved to observe ‘Justice Day’ by holding state level conventions on July 12 to sensitise the issues among the teachers .The meet also decided to support the AIFUCTO’s call for a massive march and rally to be held at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on July 24.
