[Assam] Globalization or Privatization?

[Dilip/Dil Deka]

The following is from the Assam Tribune. The conference was attended by college teachers. 
  Was the word 'globalisation' wrongly used in place of 'privatization'? Where is the fear - private sector owning and running the institutions of higher learning, or multinational corporations like GE, IBM, Sony, Tata or Mittal running the institutions?
  If someone can explain in the net, I'd appreciate. 
  The private sector has been investing in education in other Indian states for a while. How are those colleges faring - in quality of education and affordability? 
  Dilip Deka
   
  STATE  
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    ‘Globalisation of education harmful to poor students’
>From Our Correspondent
 DHUBRI, Feb 2 – The 3rd zonal conference of ACTA’s west zone consisting of ACTA’s units of Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Chirang districts, was held on January 22 on the BN College premises of Dhubri. The conference was attended, besides delegates from the colleges of the four districts, by Jyoti Nath Gogoi, president, ACTA, Dr Apurba Kr Das, GS, ACTA and Ramesh Ch Barman, central observer.

The delegate meeting was held under the presidentship of Nagendra Nath Roy, president of the zonal committee. The meeting observed two minute silence at the beginning in the memory of educationists, litterateur, artists, political leaders and victims of extremists’ mayhem during the last one year. Addressing the session, Dr A K Das gave a detail account of the ACTA activities in connection with implementation of pension scheme for college employees, payment of arrrears, placement in senior and selection grade of teachers, filling up of vacant posts in the colleges, etc. The secretarial report was distributed by Sheikh Hedayetullah, secretary of the zonal committee. The conference adopted seven resolutions.

Earlier, a seminar on Impact of globalisation on higher education with special reference to North East region was held which was formally inaugurated by G K Srivastava, retired HoD English deptt, BN college. It was conducted by TN Chakravarty, former vice-president of ACTA and the main speaker Abdul Mannan, lecturer, Statistics Deptt, GU. In his deliberation Mannan drew a gloomy picture of higher education in India in the future if globalisation is allowed to grasp the field of education. According to him MNCs treat education as a consumer commodity. If they succeed it will give them a market of 4700000 crore rupee-business Higher education will be costly and our poor students will be unable to afford it. By signing the WTO by the Government of India in 1994, it has already stepped into the death-trap of the GATS (General Agreement in trade Services).

Government has started avoiding its social responsibility in education by not filling vacant posts and by imposing ever new conditions in appointment of teachers. In NE region, which is already educationally backward, globalisation of education will bring doom to oue aspiring students, Mannan said.

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