The Constitutional Vision of Education vs Neo-liberal Assault on India

Prof. Anil Sadgopal with Prof. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy (VC, UoH)

Prof. Anil Sadgopal delivered the Alladi Memorial Lecture at the University of Hyderabad on October 11, 2013. Prof. Sadgopal is a member of the All India Forum for Right to Education and Former Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Delhi. The topic of his talk was “The Constitutional Vision of Education vs Neo-liberal Assault on India”. The Alladi Memorial Lecture is organized in collaboration with the Alladi Memorial Trust and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Hyderabad.

Prof. G. Hargopal introduced the speaker as a very important personality in taking forward the movement to ensure quality education for all and described him as a person with very rare combination of philosophical disposition and conviction for great social change.

Prof. Sadgopal started his lecture with presenting his experience in his last engagement with the Govt. on preparing the Right to Education Bill. He submitted that the Govt. had not been willing to discuss about private schools on the ground that they don’t get any grants from the Govt. He rejects this proposition and argues that the Govt. does monitor liquor shops, taxi and auto-rikshaws and other many such entities even though they are not funded by the Govt as that is concerned with citizen’s welfare. He maintained that in his 10 months engagement during this period, the Govt. didn’t take any of his points. According to him, Right to Education (RTE) act in its current form doesn’t stand for enabling people to claim their constitutional entitlements but it is more to satisfy neo-liberal attacks on the country.