The following article is written by Protap Debnath (a member of New Socialist Alternative CWI-India) and a student currently studying Fashion Design course in a college in Tirupur (Tamil Nadu). This article is about his experiences on the problems/ issues faced by him and many others in private colleges all over India, as the sole motive of these colleges is all about profit and very little to do with providing them proper amenity or quality education.
Editors
Socialism.in
Higher Education- Business- Profit
From the middle of 2011, I have been a student of a private college in Tirupur (Tamil Nadu). Here I got a clear experience about Indian higher educational system, and the profitable business that education in India has become. The college that I belong to is promoted by Tirupur Exports Association (TEA) comprising of 635 garment export companies and has around 500 students studying various courses related to fashion and apparel.
The college management has not even provided minimum basic facilities to the students studying in this college, despite charging them lakhs of rupees as tuition fees. While the college appears very appealing from the outside, but there is little to praise about it on the inside, especially when it comes to delivering quality education and basic facilities.
The management has not hired a qualified faculty and are very inexperienced to handle all the courses. Despite having a seizable number of students from outside of Tamil Nadu, we have communication problems with the staff/ faculty who can only speak in Tamil and the management continues to ignore this issue. We are even taught subjects which are of no relevance to our field, such as yoga which should be made optional only for those who are interested.
The college website for instance boosts Internet connectivity around the clock, but we have never been provided this facility until very recently & that too for very limited hours only. The college hostel service (both boys and girls) is exceptionally bad. Despite charging us with a mess bill of Rs. 2000 every month, the food is not palatable. Because of the ongoing power crises in Tamil Nadu, we only get 12 hrs of power supply. But the management despite charging us money for generator services to make up for the power cut, we do not get to use this facility at all! Because of this problem, we are forced for instance in the morning to go to college without having proper bath or to even answer to nature’s call, because water cannot be pumped to the overhead tanks without electricity. The problem of electricity has even affected our studies during evening times.
Fighting Back!
Unable to bear these problems any longer, recently a group of us student got together – 75 in all and staged a one day strike in the college premises to protest against this inhuman conditions that we are forced to live with every day. But instead of addressing our grievances or at-least sending someone from the management to at-least listen to us, our protests fell on deaf ears. The next day, we got a warning from the management that they would suspend us immediately and levy heavy fines against us if we repeat this in the future.
This shows the typical attitude of management, which is the case everywhere, that neither listens/ addresses our grievances and shows complete contempt when it comes to basic rights of students to protest and organize. Of course there is lack of consciousness among students and many students, because of the extremely rotten nature of political parties in India, wish to remain apolitical and this only strengthens the hands of the college management.
Recently the college management planted a 75 years old tree, spending Rs. 68,000 for that and all these were done only to gain media coverage about their concern for the environment and so on. But when it comes to addressing our basic concerns, that is simply non-negotiable!
Protap Debnath
Tirupur