Commercialisation of higher education is part of the hidden agenda of governments to discourage critical thinking among youths, economist Prabhat Patnaik has said. He was inaugurating the State conference of the Association of Kerala Government College Teachers (AKGCT) here on Friday. Mr. Patnaik said higher education in the country was under attack like never before.
“The trend that started with the introduction of the neo-liberal policies has become very serious now. The Hindutva ruling force is trying to make education a commercial product, thus bringing down its quality. They want to produce a generation that cannot think or criticise. They try to distort history by replacing it with mythological stories. Important decisions have been made on the basis of beliefs and emotions,” he said.
The BJP-led Union government is insisting on inducing principles of the private sector into public education through corporatisation and commercialisation. In the process, a large section of people have been excluded from the mainstream. The Hindutva represents corporate-communalist agenda. The strategy of the fascist rule is to weaken democracy, he noted. AKGCT State president K.K. Damodharan presided.
