Days after a notice on the West Bengal school education department’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) plans surfaced on social media, the Students Federation of India and other Left-affiliated teachers’ organisations on Friday threatened to wage a fierce protest against such move. The protesters claimed that the idea, if implemented, would deprive many students, especially the underprivileged ones, of basic education, with private players calling the shots.
An unsigned and undated draft notice, bearing the name of school education department, was circulated on social media recently, stating that the government, as part of its expansion plans, intended to operationalise schools through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. “Whereas, to merge the best practices of both government and private schools, the School Education Department, Government of West Bengal (GoWB), intends to operationalize schools through Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and leverage unused infrastructure of the government.
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“Whereas, a need is felt to encourage the private investors in school education sector by extending more flexible Government contribution in the form of Public Private Partnership mode, where the State Government may provide land or building or infrastructures and other amenities to the investors (sic),” the draft notice said.
A senior education department official that its principal secretary Manish Jain, in a letter to heads of several other departments, had last month sought their opinion on the PPP model for schools. The official also said that the government, in the face of protests, would now “carefully watch the situation” before working on the draft.
Several teachers’ associations and SFI, the Leftwing students’ organisation, have said they would hold protests in different colleges and universities in protest. “This is a deep rooted conspiracy to hand over the education sector to certain corporate groups close to the government. We will launch a fierce protest against the idea. We will go to any extent,” SFI state unit member Subhajit Sarkar said.
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A senior official of the state education department, when contacted, said no decision has been made on the matter, further refusing to divulge any other details. The All Bengal Teachers’ Association (ABTA) has given a call for a ‘mahamichhil’ (giant rally) on February 19 in protest against the draft notice and the proposed policy.
“Any move to privatise the state-run education system will deprive lakhs of students of basic education facilities, of elementary education and enable the private sector to call the shots. That cannot be allowed to happen,” one of ABTA spokespersons said.
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