Karachi
In the wake of the announcement of the provincial budget for the financial year 2016-17 earlier this month, the National Students Federation (NSF), Karachi held a session titled “Your Right to Know: Education Budget 2016-17” at the Irtiqa Institute on Sunday.
Hosted by NSF Karachi’s organiser Muzammal Afzal, the session did not only enlighten young minds with the dynamics of the education budget but also raised questions regarding their participation because depoliticisation has stunted the growth of students who are conditioned to stay away from statecraft.
Explaining Marxist economy to the attendees comprising mainly students, Dr Shahram Azhar, assistant professor at the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Habib University, spoke at length about the distribution of resources and means of production. He said although the role of labour had evolved, exploitation had only grown with it and unlike a Marxist economy where the role of a producer, who contributed by the sweat of the brow, would be given priority in the budget, the current set-up did not cater to the opinion of a worker let alone their needs.
He also pointed out that it was fairly easy to blame the students who quit their education by saying that they were least interested.
“It’s not the dropout ratio of students but the walkout one, because students are forced to quit owing to the lack of facilities and astonishing fee structures. Doesn’t it come as a shock to all that 48 percent of the children in the country are malnourished?” he asked.
“In such a setting, the students need to realise the means of production and its allocation because it’s the war on surplus and in case the right is not given to them by demands, they need to fight their way out,” he added.
While Azhar’s views put things in perspective regarding to the voice of the common people in the budget, the dean of social sciences, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Szabist), Dr Riaz Sheikh regretted that the issue with the allocation of the education budget had more to do with policies than the monetary allocation.
“Since the inception of this state, bureaucracy has held its reins and with insecurity and hate, ultimately turned it into a security state,” he added.
“In the beginning when the ambassador to the United States had asked for $30 billion, it told a lot about the future of the country because the grant was asked for defence and not education or any other sector which would benefit the society.”
Referring to the former dictator General Pervez Musharraf’s era he pointed out that Attaur Rehman’s idea of higher education had caused a lot of harm because nothing was done to build the foundation of the education system.
“Education system can’t be treated like an overhead bridge which is built in six months and provides an alternate to problem. It is a gradual process which cannot sustain if the previous work is scrapped off every time a new government comes,” he explained.
Reinstating the discourse of present class divide, Shiekh said 35 percent of the society was acquiring education from private institutions and to top it off, 90 percent of this sector belonged to urban centres - a horrific schism.
“With a neoliberal economy where market determines everything how can we assure that equal playing field would be given when the majority doesn’t even have access to better facilities?”
Supporting the discussion via numbers, Dr Fahd Hussain, assistant professor, School of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Habib University said that it was alarming how the budget presented initially differs to a great deal with the revised one later. He added that it was deplorable that important sectors were easily ignored by the state. “All sectors which can benefit the society in any way are conveniently ignored and are not considered as state’s priority be it education or even law and order which is deteriorating day by day.”
Nevertheless, students can play an important role in determining the budget by raising the right questions: “Not only students but their parents must also understand the importance of politics and should encourage accountability. For instance, they can ask about the budget allocation for a library or a research centre and can ask the administration about its distribution later so that if there is any discrepancy students can raise the issue and bring it to light,” Hussain notd, encouraging the students to realise that it was high time that they knew their rights.
The session was concluded by former NSF central organiser, Khurram Ali, who reiterated Azhar’s views on surplus labour.
He observed that educational institutions were keen on producing surplus labour because exploitation became much easier that way.
“Students pay exorbitant amount of fees to acquire skills which they think are of their choice but in reality they have no say in this regard and if they dare to question they’re conveniently shown the door, which is why students need to politicise themselves. It’s just impossible to have a ‘classless’ education system when every aspect is affected the great divide of multiple classes,” he added.
