Today has been a bad day, a sad day. These days when I set out for work I do not even know if I will be allowed inside the university campus by the police who at the drop of a small dust particle within the campus will seal it off. Inside, you never know which student group or organization is doing what. Going to work therefore is always a like a suspense thriller (albeit a C grade one). Today as usual I was not allowed inside by the police and therefore I had to try another entrance and I was allowed inside on production of my identity card. When I reached the Arts College I noticed sloganeering by one of the student organizations and throwing of furniture to shut the college down. Some of us decided to adjourn to the university canteen for a cuppa and some chit chat before going home. However, even in the canteen there was mayhem, student leaders (some of them doing PhD) appeared on the scene smashed a few things in the canteen and asked everyone to get out, which we did since there wasn't anything else we could do.
But the whole thing got me thinking. It has been more than three or four months since anyone in the university has gone to class. There are no examinations, no classes, the hostels are open and the university staff gets its salaries on time (at least so far). Students hardly pay their mess bills and some of the dues I am told run into over fifty thousand rupees per head. All this is tax payers money, completely unaccounted for. Any attempt within the university to set things right will only unleash a reign of terror and those who dare to dissent will be beaten black and blue. Today nobody knows who is striking for what and nobody even wants to question anyone or anything. The motto is take it easy baby, take it as it comes (Jim Morrison would have been proud to see this). All this has to do with the unholy student-teacher nexus about which I have talked ad nauseum, pathetic Vice-Chancellors who want the position but not the responsibility that comes with it and teachers who in the conceivable past have not read a line of anything other than manufactured news (mostly they only contribute to the manufacturing process and hence like to check on their achievement) in the vernacular press and consequently cannot teach a thing about anything in a class room. The politically appointed Vice-Chancellors and their cronies among the teachers play one student group against another for information and when the situation gets out of hand they hide somewhere till such time tempers cool down. University administration is run with political strategies that are akin to those of political parties, by breaking student and teacher numbers into caste denominations. I once thought that Osmania University and other State universities were areas where those who aspired to become bureaucrats but couldn't, became teachers and tried hard to be bureaucratize the university. It now appears that generation of people have moved on and most of the present teachers are failed candidates for politics and are using the universities as surrogate grounds for some politics of their own.
So great. Why am I saying all this? Especially since this is familiar to most people who read my blog. I have been a huge optimist and believed that bad times do not last forever and that things will get better. I have argued that creation of a deliberative public sphere will change things and create a better and sustainable democratic order. Today, I have almost lost all my hope. What use are words when confronted with cannon fodder? When teachers and students in universities take recourse to verbal and other forms of violence at the drop of anything, where will deliberative democracy set in? When anti-social elements parade as teachers and scholars but have scores of the lowest order (mainly caste) to settle, where is the hope? I have waxed eloquent about a failed system of education especially in the private sector which has turned it into a profit spinning enterprise. I started off with a solution that said that the State must provide free, uniform and quality education to all. Today I see that the position is possibly untenable. I delayed my post about how there could be an accountable system of education provided by the State since some of my friends did send literature on where private education worked but also because my own working conditions and the unaccountability that we are enjoying has raised questions about the State providing education.
All this has something to do with the nature of politics. Everyday one reads in the newspapers various scams pertaining to all walks of life. Equally frightening is the attitude of opposition political parties who will do anything to end the term of this government. When I say anything I mean anything. There is no bottom to this. It is like a black hole. With teachers and students aspiring for various political positions or politically dispensed positions, the battle lines are clearly drawn. In this whole thing of oneupmanship among the educators and students, the political parties have gained in drawing one constituency or the other on to their sides. The non resident Indians who fund such politics but take care of themselves and their children's future in other countries stoke this fire to settle old scores. If politics and politicians are like this, then what can the State be? Can a system consumed by decay regenerate something? With such dirt and filth in politics, can I really think that the State can be trusted with something as valuable as the education system? Today I am pessimistic, but I hope this feeling will pass. So I will not talk about reform of the education system under the auspices of the State, till such time that I can sort out my thinking and make an honest assessment of things. For me State sponsored education for all is the way forward. The question is how? I am sure there is a way, even if it is full of thorns.
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