A passage to commercialisation of education

By Prof. Kishore Gandhi

When I look backward and forward in space and time and inwards into myself, I rejoice and participate in the celebrations of 150 years of higher education but at the same time I am overwhelmed with the feeling of anguish and concern about the functional viability of the educational system in general and teachers training programme in particular. The development and evolution of Indian higher education could be traced back to the year 1857 when the first three Universities were established at Culcatta, Bombay and Madras. To commemorate its commencement, the year 2006-07 is being celebrated as the sesquicentennial foundation year of the Indian Higher Education system.

In our quest of finding a point of individual convergence of panorama of Indian higher education, it could be grouped into the following periods: First is the colonial period, sub-divided into 19th - 20th century, independent period of the 20th century, the transitional period of 21st century and the crucial period from 2004-2007. This period is also known as the period of detoxification of education. After a paradigm shift in economy from command and controlled to the liberalized and market driven economy, the Ministry of Human Resource Development perceived the need for establishing mandatory bodies, such as, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to promote expansion of professional education on self-financing basis.

Both the mandatory bodies are passing through complex and cumulative crisis, a crisis of self-inflicted wounds, but we are analyzing the viability of NCTE. The Review Committee headed by former HRD Secretary, Satyam, has brought to the notice of HRD Ministry the glaring violation of the NCTE Act and Rules and Regulations in its two reports. The Sudeep Bannerji Committee has recommended even its closure and proposed that the Universities and State Government be entrusted with the responsibility of regulating B.Ed Colleges. Both these reports are lying in the Ministry and no action seems to have been taken and public is awaiting the outcome of these reports.

The public perceptions about the NCTE is that it has suffered grievously due to its flawed policies and programmes and has fallen prey to certain allurements in the process of granting recognition to sub-standards approximately 6000 B.Ed. Colleges across the country during the last three years (2004-2007). The products of these sub-standards B.Ed. Colleges have spelt disaster to school education. The newspapers have highlighted several cases of rapes and murders in schools and indulgence of the teaching community in anti-social activities. The Delhi High Court has set up a Committee of Lawyers to go in-depth about the functional viability of schools and submit the Report for initiating action against the deviant behaviour of teachers.

What does the educational environment at the school level unfolds for us? The question that follows is that when regulatory body of NCTE has sold out teachers training colleges to unscrupulous property dealers, Chholewallaha, Kapra Wallaha and other Vendor, bereft of academic values - we are bound to experience the cultural shock and crucification of ethical and moral values. The NCTE was established with the mandate of Parliament "to achieve planned and co-ordinated development of the teacher education and maintain standards," and (ii) Regulatory function of granting recognition to Teachers Training Colleges and institutions at various levels.

But what is most surprising is that it abdicated its main responsibility of extending the frontiers of knowledge through research inputs in the areas of curriculum framework, teaching methodologies and educational technologies to improve the quality of teachers education. But it ruthlessly pursued the task of sanctioning B.Ed Colleges in a haphazard fashion, without giving adequate consideration to the requirements of the concerned State Government and norms and guidelines of the affiliation University. What is most alarming is that it followed the unilateral approach of granting recognition to Societies or Trusts for B.Ed. Colleges without examining their three years performance as per the Government norms and the viability certificate of the concerned affiliating University and No Objection Certificate of the State Government and consequently brought the system to crucial crossroads, said Mr P C Mullana, President, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee and former Education Minister.

The Annual Report of NCTE has estimated that from 1857 to 2004, the country was able to establish only 3,411 B.Ed Colleges but during the last three years from 2004-07, it has added roughly, 6,000 more colleges which are bereft of infrastructural facilities and qualified academic community. Some of these colleges have been opened in Dharamshalas and even in Sweats Shops/Printing Presses. The educational administrators, such as, Prof. R. P. Singh, Prof. J. S. Rajput, Prof. A. K. Sharma, Prof. Maheshwari who have been involved with National Council for Teacher Education and National Council of Educational Research and Training have sharply and coherently brought out the state of affairs in the NCTE in the scholarly publication, University News (Association of Indian Universities).

There is a settled anarchy and confusion of functions because this organization lacks governance, transparency and accountability and has become a Legal Agency. The officials are deputationists and are not accountable to the Ministry. The Members of the Council of NCTE are reduced to helpless spectators. Recently, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has proposed to the Prime Minister that the higher education be brought to the State list by the appropriate Constitutional Amendment to arrest the unilateral approach of NCTE and other mandatory bodies from encroaching the powers of the State Governments and autonomy of the University system. Even the judicial probe and CBI enquiry of NCTE has been demanded by educationists and parliamentarians. Is NCTE beyond redemption and not accountable to the Parliament? Let us not forget that higher education was brought in the Concurrent List only during the emergency and ought to have been reverted back to the State list at least after a paradigm shift in economy to arrest the encroachment of State powers and autonomy of the University system by the Central Regulatory body like NCTE!

Budget disappointment for Aviation

By Devsagar Singh

Airlines in India have taken a double whammy this budget. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram did not lower taxes on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) while just the next day (March 1) oil PSUs raised ATF prices.

Airlines are in a quandary-should they raise fuel surcharge again? Currently, the surcharge is Rs 1650 per ticket. Sources say the airlines will be meeting sometime this week to take a final decision.

Aviation industry has been trying its best to secure reduction in ATF taxes for more than a year. This budget, they had expected the government to heed to their demand. They were disappointed, however. Any further raise on fuel surcharge will hit them, especially the low-cost airlines.

After crude prices touched record highs in the international market, price of ATF was raised-between Rs 2542 and Rs 2332 per kilolitre-in the four metros. "We will take a decision on surcharge next week. We have to see what best we can do," a senior airline official was quoted as saying to the media.

At a time when aviation industry was consistently growing above 35 per cent per annum, ATF prices may come as a dampner. For, every hike in any fare component affects the profitability of airlines. Low-cost airlines are the hardest hit because their clientele is mostly middle class and upper middle class needy travellers. The full fare airlines have mostly corporate and official travelers who do not have to bother about fare increases.

Chidambaram's Budget did not affect the airlines in any other way. Even PSU airlines remained untouched largely. But this was only expected. The Government had already allowed the PSU carriers-Air India and Indian (Airlines) in their earlier avatar-to buy new aircraft worth over Rs 20,000 crore. There was no major budgetary support, anyway, with these carriers going in for international loan albeit with sovereign guarantee.

This budget mainly made provisions for Airports Authority of India which has the overall responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of airports around the country. Care has been rightly taken for providing operational improvements in various airports of the NE region and crucial areas like Jammu, Leh, Srinagar, Port Blair, Agati, Puducherry and Aurangabad.

The AAI has undertaken a massive modernisation plan for the non-metro airports. In the first phase, for example, it has included ten airports, including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Udaipur, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Goa, Madurai and Mangalore. Work in many of these airports are near completion. In phase II, AAI has plans to upgrade 15 airports which include Agati, Aurangabad, Khajuraho, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhopal, Indore, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Trichy, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Patna, Port Blair and Varanasi.

AAI's III phase include 10 airports -- Agra, Chandigarh, Dimapur, Jammu, Pune, Agartala, Dehradun, Imphal, Ranchi and Raipur. While AAI is taking care of the airside and terminal building development, investments for commercial development of land (city side development) of non-metro airports shall be done by the private sector. AAI is also considering the formation of wholly owned subsidiaries for some select larger non-metro airports. The possibility for going in for PPP (public-private partnership) in respect of a few selected airports is also under consideration.

From the investor's perspective, though there is huge potential for investment and the Government's FDI policy is also in place, there remains the need for a stable and firm strategy providing for details of the airport privatisation process. This is taking time because the civil aviation policy is yet to be finalised.

Indeed, the civil aviation policy is hanging fire for more than three years now. There is lack of unanimity in the nitty gritty of airport privatisation among the UPA partners. The left parties which have been providing crucial outside support to the government have their own strong views in the matter. So, even while the policy is virtually ready, the government is unable to announce the same.

This has sent a negative signal to foreign investors who are naturally wary about how and when to invest. The latest security angle in FDI is yet another red herring to foreign investors. This involves vetting by security agencies like Raw, IB etc for any and every FDI proposal for major infrastructure projects like airports. (IPA)

US Mush bonhomie

By Fazal Mehmood

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive! The line from Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion" is uttered by the fictional English Lord Marmion after his deceitful schemes unravel. One reviewer has called Marmion "a thoroughly rotten man: a seducer, forger, liar, greedy for lands and not squeamish about how he acquires them".

The above description correctly describes what Pakistan President, General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf is upto backed by the US President; George W. Bush, despite the overwhelming rejection of his party by voters, which is fuelling a new level of frustration in Pakistan with the United States. That support has rankled the public, politicians and journalists, inciting deep anger at what is perceived as American meddling and the refusal of Washington to embrace the new, democratically elected government. John D. Negroponte, the Deputy Secretary of State, said on February 28 during a Senate panel hearing that the US would maintain its close ties to Musharraf.

Pakistanis say the Bush administration is grossly misjudging the political mood in Pakistan and squandering an opportunity to win support from the Pakistani public for its fight against terrorism. The opposition parties that won the February 18 parliamentary elections say they are moderate and pro-American. By working with them, analysts say, Washington could gain a vital, new ally.

The American insistence that Musharraf play a significant role, they say, will only draw out a power struggle with the president and distract the new government from pushing ahead with alternatives to Musharraf's policies on the economy and terrorism, which are widely viewed as having failed.

"I've never seen such an irrational, impractical move on the part of the United States," said Rasul Baksh Rais, a political scientist at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. "The whole country has voted against Musharraf. This was a referendum against Musharraf."

Over the last week, more than a dozen editorials and commentaries have appeared in Pakistan's leading newspapers accusing the US of "meddling" in the country's affairs.

Pakistan has never seen nation-building in any meaningful sense. Large sections of its society have turned to radical Islam as the 'liberal democratic' institutions of the country have been unresponsive to their aspirations. Such institutional disenfranchisement is a function of Pakistan's oppressive socio-economic order. It's this order that mainstream parties need to politically transform. This transformative agenda must be most actively pursued in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to end the system of governing the areas through tribal jirgas. FATA must be integrated into Pakistan's democratic polity if it is to cease being the bastion of militant Islam.

For all the rash talk of impeaching Musharraf, the PPP leadership has a major responsibility to govern Pakistan according to the expression of the people's will while at the same time treading carefully so as not to alarm the outside powers who brokered the Benazir deal last year. A coalition with Sharif, in any case, is neither the PPP's only nor most desirable option.

The PPP, along with MQM in Sindh and the ANP in the NWFP plus remnants of Musharraf's group, also hold out the prospect of a workable coalition. The PPP is the only organization with a substantial presence in all four provinces, and it had performed better than it did in 1970. In Sindh the PPP achieved a majority but they are unlikely to be imprudent enough to ignore the MQM, the second largest party in the province. The MQM represents major urban centres, including Karachi, and a power-sharing arrangement between the PPP and themselves would be a boon for the province.

The challenge before the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, PPP's new leader, as they push and shove to form a coalition government, is twofold. First and foremost, how to cooperate wholeheartedly with the United States and NATO in the war against the Taliban and Al Qaida, who are using the tribal region as their hideout and training camps for keeping Afghanistan in a state of perpetual turmoil and have been extending their tentacles into the rest of Pakistan.

During the US presidential primaries, the three leading candidates, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barak Obama of the Democratic Party and Senator John McCain of the Republican Party have expressed their differences about the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but they have been firm in dealing with the Taliban and Al Qaida in Pakistan. Obama even suggested bombing the tribal areas of Pakistan if it did not fully cooperate with the United States.

Benazir Bhutto was reported to have no objection if the US troops operated from Pakistan's territory in hunting down the Taliban and Al Qaida. The new leadership of Pakistan cannot afford to belittle the US interests in the region, including Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The second major issue of course is the fate and the political role of President Musharraf, whose political party, Muslim League (Q), got a terrible beating at the poll, including the defeat of its 23 cabinet ministers. Benazir had agreed to a power-sharing arrangement with him, which allowed her to return to Pakistan, unfortunately, as it turned out, to meet her tragic end. Mr. Sharif, who returned from his Saudi exile but was barred from fighting elections, is at present dead set against any accommodation with Mr. Musharraf and wants him to be impeached. Bringing back the old judiciary hastily might aggravate the situation and trip the applecart.

If the coalition has a two-third majority in parliament, Mr. Musharraf could be impeached but whether it will be politically wise to do so is a different matter. The greatest need of Pakistan today is to form a secular, progressive government with a strong economic agenda that can sustain the remarkable economic growth of more than six per cent achieved during the last several years of the Musharraf administration; and resume the dialogue with India to bring peace and stability to the entire subcontinent.

The continuation of Mr. Musharraf as President albeit with diminished political role will allow the diplomatic, economic and political processes to continue, apart from assuring the United States that war against terrorism will not be adversely affected. There is no indication that the Bush administration has lost its confidence in Mr. Musharraf (and the Pakistan military), and whoever occupies the White House next January will build upon the gains of the Bush administration and increase the US influence with the civilian government as well as the military establishment, where Mr. Musharraf continues to have a loyal and powerful network. INAV