Moalims

Many students from working class families have already been forced to leave their courses in the middle of the academic session because of the already high tuition fees, increasing living expenses, substandard living conditions in hostels and terrible bus services

Sometimes it so happens in history that the ruling classes and their top representatives blurt out truths in periods and episodes of crisis and conflict. In ordinary times the bosses conceal their real intentions and their contempt for the workers and the poor with hypocritical gestures, and their propaganda through the corporate media. Health and education, two of the most crucial prerequisites of human existence, in times of capitalist decay and crisis are the first targets of the rotting system, its political elite and its state. The recent remarks of the Vice Chancellor (VC) of one of the so-called most prestigious universities in Pakistan expose the callous nature of the ruling classes, their state and the political elite.

On December 22, 2015, the students of Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) boycotted classes against an increase in fees of up to 30 percent. This quickly turned into a strike involving over 1,000 students from all departments the next day over their VC’s repulsive and despicable remarks, and absence of other basic amenities in the university. The intervention of the QAU VC, Dr Javed Ashraf, in the lobby of the protesting students instead of resolving the issue ended up infuriating all when he said that, “The poor who cannot afford should not enroll themselves in the university.” He arrogantly scolded the students that, come what may, the fee hike would not be reversed.

These remarks agitated and enraged the students who shouted “Go VC go.” Such was the strong reaction and indignation to these insulting words that there existed the real danger of the VC being lunched by the students. The VC had to flee and escaped with his tail between his legs from the angry protesters. The students continued their protest and announced to completely shut down the campus. The varsity administration has increased the fee structure from 20 percent to 30 percent of all departments while it can increase the fee only up to 10 percent in accordance with rules, and that too in a situation where the university is facing financial crisis.

The fee for undergraduate programmes has been increased from Rs 45,000 to Rs 67,000 and for MA programmes it has been raised from Rs 27,000 to Rs 37,000 this year. Likewise, the fees for MPhil and PhD programmes have also been raised. According to the students, QAU is a public sector university and the fees here should be less when compared to private sector universities.

The fee raise itself is only half of the problem; the real issue is lack of facilities in spite of the raise, commented a teaching faculty member to a press reporter. “Students do not have hot water and heating in the hostels. Lack of a proper cafeteria, computer labs and transport issues are also main issues. The students have been bearing the brunt of ill-planned expansion of programmes without infrastructure,” he said, requesting not to be named. According to the protesting students, many students from working class families have already been forced to leave their courses in the middle of the academic session because of the already high tuition fees, increasing living expenses, substandard living conditions in hostels and terrible bus services. Another senior dean at the university told a friend: “The teaching staff prefer to teach in state institutions on lower wages primarily due to their commitment of imparting education to the deprived sections of the population and have repeatedly turned down opportunities for higher salaries at posh universities for the cause of ‘education for all’.” She went on to say that they were supporting the protests and were a part of the struggle for free education.

This episode lays bare that a state in which the literacy rate is officially 58 percent and declining further is indifferent and even prepared to deny education to the children of the toiling classes at higher levels. Privatisation of health and education has become the most lucrative department of profiteering. These barons of the private health and education sectors invest in political parties for favourable policies through parliaments and regimes of the bribed political elites. Most of Pakistan’s bourgeois houses have switched from industry and manufacturing production to these sectors, and today health and education are dominated by the private sector. Student unions were banned by Ziaul Haq’s vicious dictatorship and democratic regimes have slavishly followed his policies in these and other sectors of the economy, society and the state. There are very few genuine student organisations left and those that are being tolerated unofficially are dominated by right wing liberal and Islamic parties. In the last analysis, they subscribe to the cause of capitalist perpetuation rather than the rights of the students of the oppressed classes to have education.

However, in Pakistan, there is a strong tradition of left wing and revolutionary tendencies in student movements. After all, it was the students’ revolt that initially ignited the 1968-1969 revolution. However, left wing currents amongst student movements are not dead as perceived by many ex-leftists and the mainstream media. On December 5, 2015, a convention of various left wing students and youth organisations was held in the open-air auditorium at Lawrence Gardens, Lahore. A new platform, the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), was set up to fight for students’ and youth demands. Free education for all, end to the privatisation of educational institutions, re-nationalisation of all educational institutions, right of self-determination for oppressed nationalities, guaranteed employment or a state unemployment benefit for the unemployed, the reinstatement of student unions and an end to the education system being abused for business and profiteering are at the forefront of their demands. The convention paid glowing tribute to the famous Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara and his struggle for the emancipation of humanity. Their most popular slogan was: “Life is our right; employment is necessary for life’s existence.”

Almost every speaker acknowledged that capitalism cannot provide free healthcare and education. With this coercive system these rights have been turned into the privileges of the rich and the middle classes. With the deepening of the economic crisis, healthcare and education have become too expensive and beyond the reach of more than 80 percent of the population. A state and system enacted for the preservation of capitalism will always strive for the continuation of the exploitation of human labour and enhance the rates of profits for the ruling classes. Within this system it is not just futile to talk about providing healthcare and education through reforms and charity but becomes a counter-productive theme that impedes the struggle of the youth who dare to fight to change this system for the attainment of these very rights. The new generation of youth entering this struggle shall have to fight to the finish and reject such delusions of getting education through aid and charity. The system has forever lost its capacity to provide these basic necessities of life.

LAL KHAN
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign.