Govt Urged to Not to Sign WTO GATS Agreement

Coimbatore, July 13, 2015: All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) today urged the Centre to not to sign the WTO-GATS(General Agreement on Trade and Services) in education sector , as the entire higher education system in India would be changed.

"Education is a right, but WTO is considering it as a service and if the Government sign the agreement our education policies would be entirely changed," AIFRTE organising secretary Ramesh Patnaik, told reporters here.

India is expected to sign the agreement at a final meeting at Nairobi on December 15, he said.

Foreign Direct Investment will be allowed in the higher education sector, under which foreign universities would establish universities and colleges here and professors and teachers will come here and collect service charges forr rendering service in institutions, he pointed out.

Moreover the students who are receiving education through correspondence from a foreign supplier and the students go to foreign countries to pursue education, have to pay the service charges, Patnaik said.

P B Prince Gajendra Babu, General secretary, State Platform for Common School System, who was also present said +similar to the closure of primary schools, we will be also forced to close higher education institutions if the agreement come in to force.

The students will not get scholarship and the colleges will not get grants from the Government, Gajendra Babu claimed.

+BJP government has already reduced Rs 4,000 crore to education sector in the budget and if the government sign the agreement with the WTO-GATS, economically poor and common man will not not be able to pursue higher education,+ he said.

Stating various types of agitation will be held at district level to protest against the signing of the agreement, he said that August nine, being observed as Quit India day, will be observed as +WTO- Quit our Education-education is not for sale day+.

PTI