By Joe Rukin
Momentum is building across Europe to get the ball rolling faster to open the 'global education market' in line with the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Trade and Services. The European Commission has submitted a formal request for bilateral talks with the USA, so as to open their education market to European providers.
The full implementation of GATS would remove 'protectionism' within the market of education and of course would be a two-way street, opening up Europe to American for-profit institutions. Under GATS any provider within a market would be able to access taxpayers money to fund their institution, whilst still making a profit. Free Education campaigners have for a long time cited the long-awaited implementation of GATS as one of the main reasons for cuts in HE funding, which have forced in part-privatisation of institutions through the back door, softening up the sector for full market forces.
Bilateral negotiations are scheduled to run until the end of March 2003, but if these behind the scenes negotiations fail to bear fruit, higher education will be included in the next set of global negotiations after the conclusion of GATS talks in January
2005. The leak of this news has upset the European Universities Association, who feel they should have been consulted before the Commission made this approach. Eric Froment, president of the EUA said
"The EUA regrets the lack of transparency in this phase of the Gats round, in marked
contrast with negotiations involving other service sectors where providers are consulted. Armed with a Gats agreement, private for-profit ventures might challenge the public funding of existing institutions as unfair competition or ask for public funding themselves."
A warning about the crisis of commercialisation of education and research came to educationet from Pakistan, where the education system is a few more steps down the road. Tariq Mahmood, a student in Peshawar explains;
"In Pakistan profiteering has overtaken all aspects of human life. Health care has been commercialised and now education follows. Only a few years ago there was hardly any universities in the private sector. Now, private institutions have been ratified and are increasingly charging heavy tuition and other fees. Only the marketable subjects are being taught such as IT and business management. Basic and social sciences have been forgotten and in research, the volume of a thesis is the criteria for granting of degrees."
"Even in the public sector institutions teachers are being converted to
employment on an ad-hoc basis and are paid just on the number of lectures taught. This is expected to break the required student-teacher affiliation. Soon the
relationship will like a customer visiting a store to purchase groceries. The state is fast absolving itself of the responsibility of imparting education or conduct of research, in the name of free market trends and the allegation that public sector by nature is corrupt and inefficient. The time is not far away when only the moneyed ones and their children will be educated - all the rest -billions of them- will be there to serve the few fortunate ones."
In Turkey, the situation is quite similar. Until 1995, there was no such thing as university fee. Since then this is what has happened,
1 ) The state gives a smaller budget to state universities, but gives lots of money to persuade private universities (even private universities which charge for $5000-10,000 a year), free land, and low tax rates. The pay in state universities is low, (a professor gets about $600 a month ), so they move to the private universities.
2 ) The entrance exam to universities ( about 1.3 million people enter each year ), had been augmented by a grading for each school, meaning private schools students get bonus points to enter university, which results in many poor students not having a chance to enter the university.
A new law has meant that technical school students are only able to enter technical schools. Luckily another new law which would have meant fees would rise to €700-1000 didn't get passed because of the political turmoil in the parliament.
There will be a meeting of student activists on September 13 & 14 in Cologne as part of the Education Is Not For Sale campaign against GATS. René Schuijlenburg of EINFS writes;
"Tuition fees, budget cuts, deregulation, privatisation, lack of democracy -
all a coincidence? Why should education be a commodity for sale? Why are we
denied our basic right to a state-funded education? GATS, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, is a World Trade Organisation treaty that will open up public services - like education and healthcare - to market competition and ultimately privatisation. Anyone concerned with putting people before profit must oppose it 100%."
"Are study fees and the removal of democratic structures measures designed to
build a completely new, fully commercialised educational system? Who is
interested in this? How are the GATS negotiations organized? Who is
negotiating? What are they negotiating? Which developments are currently happening in Germany and other countries? What kind of resistance is taking place? Can we
resist together with people in other countries? What is education? What is it good for? Who should education serve? Should education have a function at all?"
"Is the pilot project from the Bertelsmann corporation the beginning of the
end for public education? Is the so-called autonomy of schools introduced to let private capital get a grip on our educational system? Which goals are the Bertelsmann Corporation trying to achieve with its pilot "independent school" project? Is the main
purpose for education to make us fit for the labour market?"
For further information, mail rene@education-is-not-for-sale.org
Education is not for sale website
Steven Kelk's Site, V-cs seek openness in talks on free trade
