And, to my surprise, education is emerging as another thorny issue. The following news item is illustrative: http://kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=144881
Quoted text: Meanwhile, Himal Sharma, general secretary of ANNISU-R, said they are in favor of government access and some sort of regulation in private sector education and additional investment in government schools. He said that they have asked private school operators to enroll students without charging any fees until a new government is formed. “The new government set to be formed within the next one month will determine the fee ceiling for all private schools. Those who are able to run schools within the fee ceiling will do so, while those failing to do so will simply have to quit the sector,” he said.
Two quick observations. First, Mr. Sharma does not seem to know that the role of the next government is not to formulate new policies and implement them, but rather to give continuity to current policies until a new constitution is formed (ideally, the new constitution should define the nature of new education policies). If the government is to bring new policies, they first have to be introduced in the CA which will act as the legislature in the interim period.
Second, how are private schools to operate if students are to be enrolled without any fee? Are the YCL and ANNFSU-R going to provide some portion of the money they have extorted in the last few years from the public to these schools? Surely, this "student" leader needs to stay in school for a bit longer!
Third, this illustrates the disconnect between the vision that the central Maoist leadership has for the country and the one that the low-rank leaders and leaders of its sister organizations have--something that may create friction in the implementation of whatever plan the Maoists may come up with. Hopefully, the low-rank leaders and leaders of Maoist's sister organizations, such as Mr. Sharma, are as loyal to their party as student leaders of other parties are to theirs. Otherwise, we may soon be studying the laws of entropy soon!
--M.P.
3 comments:
Don't lose hope just yet, UML's pullout might not be all that bad after all .... let's see for a while .. YCL should definitely be penalized for whatever they have done and have been doing for the past few months or years for that matter... but let's just watch... that's all we can do for now!
no need to fret yet. i don't think we've even seen the tip of the iceberg yet.
the mandate, it seems, is for sweeping changes. and the party with the mandate is a communist party. so we're likely to see free market institutions being pushed around regardless of their relative merits.
I don't know to what extent private "boarding" schools are contributing to the country's education but i'm pretty sure it's a huge mistake to take them down. the maoists should not and will not be allowed to nationalise private schools.
i think there are enough capitalists and democrats to derail this particular maoist agenda.
that being said, the private schools do need more transparency. my local grocer told a confused customer who suddenly had to bu wai wai at 14 ruppes - "and my daughter's fees have gone up too".
the private schools have not even submitted their fee structures to the government as is required, much to the ire of PABSON. and i doubt these fee structures include all the additional costs - computer, games, cultural programs, extra curricular activities, admission fee and on and on.. those make up for more than the tuition itself.
not elimination of private schools, but more transparency and accountability is what we need. hopefully, the ANNFSU - R realizes that.
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