Saturday, December 31 2005 14:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in education and commercialisation of education are some topics that would be discussed at the four-day 26th national conference of All India Students Federation (AISF),beginning here on January three.

Commercialisation of education was creating a divide in terms of access to higher education among the rich and the poor, AISF National President Ramakrishna Panda said.

"With regard to access to higher education, there is no difference between the policies of previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government," he told reporters.

Replying to a question, he said, "A myth has been created that by focussing on professional courses, chances of employment are good, but this is far from truth."

"There are thousands of engineers and doctors who are jobless. In Andhra Pradesh, every year 70,000 students pass out of engineering courses, but only 4,000 find employment," he said.

With the development of science and technology, there has been a knowledge explosion but at the same time due to globalisation, market forces had come to play leading to commercialisation of education, he said adding that the conference would discuss this intensely.

On FDI in education, he said India was ready to open its doors to foreign educational institutions, "But one hardly knew what kind of education is imparted by such institutions."

"Even the US is not ready to open its doors to all sectors of education, but India is ready to do so," he said.

Panda said despite UPA's common minimum programme stating that six per cent of the GDP would be devoted for education, only 3.6 per cent had been allocated.

"We want six per cent of GDP given to education by the centre, and 30 per cent state budget should be allocated for education," he said.

"The conference would chalk out a three year course of action," he said

On January three,3 a special session has been organised on the occasion of AISF's 70th year.

He said the conference would begin with a rally culminating in a public meeting scheduled to be addressed by CPI general secretary A B Bardhan and its national secretary D Raja.