SFI stages protest against merger of schools and commercialisation of education

Members of the Students’ Federation of India held a ‘Belagavi Chalo’ protest in Belagavi on Friday, against merger of schools and commercialisation of education.

They gathered at the Dharwad cross near the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha and raised slogans against what they called the policy decisions and actions of the Union government and State government that led to commercialisation of education and reduced public investment in primary and higher education.

The SFI members got into an argument with the police who said that only those with Aadhaar cards could enter the protest site and that others could be sent back. They sat in dharna demanding that all students be allowed.

Later, they submitted a memorandum to Minister for Fisheries Mankal Vaidya.

They demanded a detailed discussion in the Winter Session on various issues, including corruption in education department, and the need to raise public expenditure in education and health sector.

Their other demands include creation of employment opportunities for youth pursuing professional education, including ITI and engineering, immediate release of scholarships to students and payment of arrears, and protection for girl students against violence and sexual offences.

They complained that there was a need to increase the number of hostels in the State by four times.

“Every year, around 10 lakh students apply for hostels, but only 2.5 lakh get in. All those who apply should get hostel facilities,” they said. They demanded that the food allowance for each hostel student should be increased as per cost of living, the protesters added.

They alleged that the State government was trying to close down government schools in the name of merger of schools having fewer students. “The enrolment in government schools is falling for reasons like lack of proper infrastructure, long-pending vacancies, ill-maintained toilets, delayed distribution of text books, etc. But then, the government is not taking any steps towards fixing these problems. On the contrary, it is talking about ideas like opening model school in a gram panchayat under the ‘KPS magnet schools’ scheme. But existing schools should be strengthened instead,” they said.

The government has admitted that there were over 60,000 vacancies in primary and secondary schools and over 15,000 vacancies in colleges for teachers. They should be filled immediately. They complained that over 30 lakh students had not received marksheets in the last five years, despite paying all fees. The amount of research in universities was decreasing, and the students undertaking research were not being given proper fellowships.

They opposed PPP model medical colleges. Medical, law and engineering and other higher education courses were no longer affordable for poor students and those from villages.

Private colleges were collecting exorbitant fees from students, and the middle class was pushed into a debt trap. This has to be resolved by opening more government medical and professional colleges, the protesters said.

SFI State president Shivappa Amblikal, State secretary Vijayakumar T.S., central committee member Sujatha Y., vice-president Basavaraj S., other leaders, including Ganesh Rathod, Basavaraj Guledalu, Dent Vanandana, Chandru Rathod, Suresh Babu, Anant, Arpita Gracy, Balaji, Somashekar, Shiva Reddy, hostel sub-committee State convener Arun Nagavat, co-convener Sharif, Sharanu H., Vinayak N., and others were present.