BJP government has come up with a new education policy (NEP), which is being lauded across different sections of society. NEP 2020 has replaced 34 year old National Policy on Education, framed in 1986.
Although seen as a mixed bag by educationists, NEP does cover certain aspects that will be game changer in the long run. For example, inclusion of pre-schooling years in the school structure, mother tongue as a medium of instruction up to Class V and increasing government spend on education to 6% of GDP are some path breaking reforms.
On the flip side, making higher education institutes as multi-disciplinary centres of learning could adversely impact the specialized identity of engineering and technical colleges. Typically, Arts and sciences subjects don't gel well in higher education institutes that build their reputation through specialization.
Moreover, allowing foreign universities to set up campuses through 100% FDI route could adversely impact the functioning of domestic institutes. Although the FDI proposal was first cleared in UPA rule, Modi government reversed the decision in 2014 due to Dr Swamy's intervention.
Now, BJP government has cleared the UPA era FDI proposal of foreign universities which risks the existence of domestic institutes operating through limited resources. Dr Swamy's opposition to this proposal is mainly due to the source of funding of these foreign universities. The US department of education (DOE) is already investigating the funding sources of Ivy league universities such as Harvard and Yale.
According to US DOE, both the universities have received funding of US$ 6.5 billion from countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. In this context, these Ivy league institutions seem to have lost their original character and values, which formed the basis of their foundation.
Allowing full FDI in higher education is against national interests due to the following reasons:
- Some of the Foreign Universities have questionable sources of funding
- Adverse impact on the functioning of domestic institutes
- Foreign Universities will build their own narrative within the country which may be contrary to India's principles, values and culture.
- Usually FDIs are driven by objectives of profitability and expansion rather than knowledge transfer
- FDI neglects the concept of Universalism of education
Given the above context, FDI in education may not necessarily yield the stated objectives and could be counter-productive to nationalistic sentiments.
Very good assessment by Subramanian Swamy. With great effort we are building a healthy a non-self-negating image for ourselves. This must be zealously and jealously guarded. There is no usefulness served in returning to veiled slavery and slavishness in the guise of Foreign Educational Institutions' FDI. Till we build a strong India on Nationalistic lines we cannot afford to take risks with manipulative narrative building by the clandedtine Funding Agencies.
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