The privatization of education may be a global phenomenon, but it is also being opposed by educators across the world
Dr. Manasvi M. Kamat
There is something that was very common about educators in India, US and Canada this week. Around 15,000 teachers protested in Delhi against the government’s education policy this Wednesday. In the US, about 19,000 teachers walked off from their classrooms on Tuesday closing down nearly every school in the state for the second time in a year. Post-secondary students across Canada in Ottawa agitated to meet with Senators and Members of Parliament while in Oakland-California, around 3000 public school teachers will go on a strike today.
Fortunately, all the agitations are not for pay rises. The protests rightly are against privatization of education.
Back in India, the teachers agitating in Delhi demanded ‘free and affordable education’, ‘dignified employment’ and to reserve the ‘right of education for everyone’.
Educators in Virginia are protesting Republican efforts to privatize public education. Public school teachers in Oakland are protesting budget cuts in public education while students in Ottawa are protesting reduction in post-secondary school funding.
The agitation in India was led by All-India Forum for Right to Education, a federal platform of teachers from across the country from 75 students’ and teachers’ organizations from primary schools to central universities teachers and educational rights groups from 22 states. The all-day All India Shiksha Hunkaar rally in Delhi was addressed by opposition leaders against the present government’s supposed bid to privatize, saffronise and weaken the Indian education system.
In India, there is an increasing feeling that the public education system is being largely ignored. While an estimated 37% of India lives below poverty line and cannot afford even the cheapest private schools, pro-privatisation entrepreneurs target those just above the poverty line, charging school fees averaging 30% of household expenditure.
The Delhi-based agitation echoed the same feeling that government schools and colleges are not getting money from state governments or any aid from the Centre and it’s a big jolt to federal structure of India. The educators also pressed for filling in unfilled vacancies.
Sadly, it is found that around 55% teacher’s posts for reserved category are lying vacant in various universities, though the UGC has repeatedly asked colleges to fill vacant posts. According to the above report, 5606 posts for positions like Asst/Assoc Professors and Professors are vacant in minority universities. There are 873 posts for SC, 493 for ST, 786 for OBC and 264 PWD posts lying vacant against the total number of 17,092 sanctioned posts.
In 2018 alone, more than 100,000 public school teachers in six US states walked out of class rebelling against crumbling infrastructure and deep budget cuts. This week, Union leaders called for a strike after Republicans senators voted for a bill that would open the door to allowing the first charter schools in West Virginia. This means some of the money earmarked for public schools would be diverted to fund privately run charter schools, home-schooling, and online classes. The union opposed the education bill that would also make it easier to fire teachers without considering seniority during layoffs, paying way for vested interests.
Teachers in Oakland say the lack of investment in city schools is hurting student performance. These schools will face a $56 million budget deficit in the next two years. The school board wants to cut school spending, not increase it and the protestors feel that school districts in the US are spending too much money on privately run charter schools that have little public oversight.
The student agitators in Canada have presented 3 recommendations for tackling rising student debt and accessible education – to eliminate tuition fees for all students and restore core federal funding for post-secondary education; to honour Canada’s treaty commitments on post-secondary education for indigenous peoples and to increase funding for graduate students.
A recent book published by Edward Elgar (2018) titled The State, Business and Education documents the rapid growth of private schooling at the expense of public education globally. The studies collected in this volume outline the various forms of privatization taking place. These include Public Private Partnerships (PPP), voucher schemes, for-profit fee-based basic education and other forms of government support for the private sector.
The growing trend of protests by educators provides valuable detail and insights into how this assault on public education is taking place, largely behind the backs of the population. The above book goes on to add that the international organizations like World Bank, IMF, USAID, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), global tech companies, think tanks, billionaires, and national governments around the world are acting in concert to dismantle the basic social right to universal, free public education and impose a user-pays system.
The right to education in the world is now being increasingly perceived to be as the right to privatization. See for instance the latest trend in India. Of the 1147 Colleges established in 2017, 941 (82 per cent) were private colleges and only 206 (18 per cent) are established as government colleges. The learning is simple. The protests on the same issue but different contexts add that privatization of education is a global phenomenon, and that, such privatization is globally opposed by educators.
