AMU secretary attacks Modi government for 'tinkering' with education system

ALIGARH: Honorary Secretary of AMU Teachers' Association today expressed grave concern on Centre's alleged move of encroaching upon the autonomy of institutions for higher studies in the country.

"Alarm bells are now ringing all over the country in academic circles over tinkering with education system mainly arising from the moves to introduce a 'Common University Act', common syllabi and inter-institutional transfer of teachers and students," Honorary Secretary of Aligarh Muslim University Teachers' Association (AMUTA) Mustafa Zaidi said in a statement.

The secretary said that these measures taken up by the NDA goverment would lead to loss of new initiatives taken by teachers and students who, he alleged, would be reduced to non-thinking automations only.

"There is a growing consensus amongst the teaching community, especially in central universities that the education system of the country is in grip of an unprecedented crisis where a social purpose of education was being sacrificed at the altar of privatisation, globalisation and market driven objectives," Zaidi said.

"If present trend of privatisation continues, education would become unaffordable even for middle classes," he added.

The secretary also alleged that the recent memorandums submitted to UGC on June 19 by All India Federation of Central Universities Association and All India Federation of Universities' and College Teachers' Association was a clear pointer of a "deep unrest" being felt in academic circles of higher learning all over the country.