Don?t burden the ?Future? in the times of pandemic

Eshaan S. Ganpule

“Idhar khaana khane ke paise nahi hai fees kaha se lau?” — this was the candid reply by a student to one of my tweets I put out condemning the fee hike during COVID. That student further explained, “My father operates a rikshaw, my mother was a house help but cannot work because of the pandemic, my classes have started online, but they (college) are saying I must pay full fees before they can let me attend (the classes). Conversations like the one above are a good example of what students are going through as online classes become the new norm of Indian education post lockdown.

The pandemic has ravaged the Indian economy, and people from the lower economic strata are its worst victims. The consecutive lockdowns brought everything to a grinding halt. Indian subcontinent experienced its worst internal migrant crisis post-partition. The middle class, lower middle class dug into whatever savings they had for sustenance. But the majority workforce who had very few or almost no savings to fall back on were left to survive on humanitarian aid like ration kits and community kitchens. The road to normalcy is long and filled with twists and turns no one can imagine. Average Indian household is struggling to make ends meet while many are unable to put food in their child’s plate. Though the economic stimulus and relaxation of the lockdown have started the economic churning a bit, normalcy is miles away. Indian students have also been put through the ringer during this calamity. The uncertainty and unnecessary politicisation of the exams have already stressed the students enough. Genuine health concerns, the hysteria surrounding pandemic and urge to progress in their studies is a tightrope. But as the new educational year begins and students get used to ‘Am I audible now..’ lectures, universities and institutions are back to their Mughal ways of profiteering from the suffering their subjects. They have raised their annual fees; some are asking it to be paid upfront and in full. The defaulters in this scheme are denied from attending online lectures until they pay up.

Funnily enough, the colleges, hostels, campuses were the first ones to be shut down as COVID made its first landfall in India. Campuses have been shut down since early March. Hostels vacated, stranded students taken to their homes via special trains and flights. The usual streets bustling with students, and their youthful energy lay deserted. Attending classes in your pyjamas through your phone is the new norm. Without access to libraries, Google and WhatsApp are students’ new tools; assignments are now photographed and submitted. Attendance is taken through screen names and ‘Connectivity issue’ has taken over the ‘Ghar pe bhool gaya’ reason for not completing submissions. So as all facilities generally provided by universities and institutions remain unused, the burden to pay for them is still being put on the backs of the students. If the students urge to complete the coursework is overpowered by their inability to pay fees, institutions may struggle to maintain their enrolment. And nobody wants to see an uptick in the dropout rate which just got down below 3% (2.82%) last year (2018-19).

The education sector has never seen such an unempathetic response from the institutions before. When Maharashtra was hit by drought in the year 2019, the education sector also suffered. Then state government stepped up and waived off the exam fees for the semester and even reimbursed the fees collected for practical exams. Free bus passes were provided for students from drought-hit Talukas too. Though comparing a natural calamity to a global pandemic may seem a bit like ‘comparing apples to oranges’, but I feel that a similar constructive approach is needed in mitigating the issue at hand. As the suspense over exams eases with Supreme Court’s verdict on August 28, the question of their completion, subsequent results and resulting scholarships or fellowships are so far in future that demanding students to pay fees upfront is being seen as extortion. Dividing payment of fees in small and reasonable instalments might ease the pressure as we gauge the economic shrinkage inflicted by COVID.

The COVID lockdowns have taught us an important lesson of living on essentials. I believe universities and institutions should also learn the same. Letting go of the fees being charged for the facilities like hostel, mess, gym and library which will remain unused is a way to go. And those using unnecessary headers like development fees, student welfare fees must be named and shamed. Some students have also demanded a reduction of 30% in the tuition fees, which I believe is a fair demand. I’m also aware of universities and institutes arguing about their perils, drained funds to sustain the institution, inability to pay salaries and threat of going bankrupt and being shut down which may hurt the students even more. For the most part, I do agree. I believe the government should put some serious thought behind an educational stimulus to keep the universities and institutions afloat while not putting the economic burden of it on students. As Chanakya rightfully said ‘????????? ???? ?????: ???????? ? ???? ???? ’.

The first step in solving a problem is to accept that you have one, and if the universities and the institutes of our nation fail to do that, it may spell doom for many millions like the one from the twitter conversation.