NewsClick

NewsClick
  • हिन्दी
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Covid-19
  • Science
  • Culture
  • India
  • International
  • Sports
  • Articles
  • Videos
search
menu

INTERACTIVE ELECTION MAPS

image/svg+xml
  • All Articles
  • Newsclick Articles
  • All Videos
  • Newsclick Videos
  • हिन्दी
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Science
  • Culture
  • India
  • Sports
  • International
  • Africa
  • Latin America
  • Palestine
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
  • Sri Lanka
  • US
  • West Asia
About us
Subscribe
Follow us Facebook - Newsclick Twitter - Newsclick RSS - Newsclick
close menu
×
For latest updates on nCOVID-19 around the world visit our INTERACTIVE COVID MAP
Education
Politics
India
International

JNU is Not Alone: #FeesMustFall is a Global Demand

Students are fighting for an issue much larger than the fee hike.
Shakuntala Rao
29 Nov 2019
JNU is Not Alone

The students of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University took to the streets in November with slogans such as “No to Fee Hike”, “Education not for sale” and “#FeesMustFall”, a hashtag which also ended up trending on India’s social media sites.

#FeesMustFall is a movement which did not originate at JNU. It started in the classrooms of South Africa and has since spread to global campuses.

#FeesMustFall was a national student-led protest which began in October 2015, when the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa announced increase of fees by 10%. In September 2016, the minister of higher education announced that the country’s universities were facing critical funding challenges and to meet them universities could set their own fee hikes beginning 2016.

For the next several months student protests erupted all over South Africa including at the University of Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town and at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. These protests continued for a year and led to freezing of any future fee increases and other changes in South Africa’s education system.

More recently, a small protest in mid-October this year by dozens of college students jumping subway turnstiles over a hike in transit fares quickly exploded into a full-bore uprising in Chile that has become the most significant chapter in the nation’s history since it emerged from dictatorship in 1988. From Santiago to other cities and towns such as Concepción and Valparaiso, anger over long-festering economic inequality issues, low wages, and a rising cost of living have Chileans pouring into the streets in protest.

Critics trace these protests to the 2011 student protests which began at the Central University of Chile, where students took to the streets to protest the gross unfairness of the education system; with one of world’s lowest levels of public funding for higher education and no comprehensive system of student grants or subsidised loans. The Chilean students protested against accessibility and privatisation of education.

This month, students in France took to the street after one of them set himself on fire and left a note to highlight his poverty. The undergraduate, named only as Anas K in the media, wrote a Facebook post before his attempted suicide protesting the education policies of president Emmanuel Macron and the poverty in which he found himself. Following his self-immolation, students protested in Paris and Lyons over the fact that more than 20% of French students now live in chronic poverty of the kind that Anas K had described.

At the heart of the #FeesMustFall protests is one global problem: the cost of higher education.

In the United States, many students graduate with huge student loan debts that saddle them with burdensome repayment terms. The issue has become a factor in the United States presidential election next year with two democratic candidates, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders proposing ideas for free public education. Young Americans with some college education or college degrees are delaying home ownership, marriage, and child-bearing in part because they are leaving college burdened by crushing debt and finding good-paying jobs scarce.

These protests highlight the debate as to whether education is a right or a privilege. If higher education is a privilege, critics say, students and their families ought to be able to absorb all rising costs and without much chagrin.

On the other end is a growing belief and a global narrative that higher education ought to be a right, especially since more and more students face post-university unemployment, underemployment and loan default.

The emergence of such a rights-based narrative, writes well known sociologist and educator Jonathan Kozol, is because of the alarming growth in global inequality. India, South Africa and Chile are also extremely unequal societies where the difference between the rich and poor is widening each year.

For instance, India is home to the largest number of billionaires outside the United States, China, and Germany. According to Oxfam, it is also home to the largest number of poor, malnourished, child labourers, of people without access to safe drinking water, and of illiterates. India is dead last on international environment and global hunger indices. Similarly South Africa, according to the latest data from the World Bank, is the most unequal society in the world in terms of income distribution and access to essential public services such as housing and health care.

While in South Africa the government has struggled to fulfil promises of affordable higher education which it has made on paper, India and Chile have had right-wing governments who have moved away from public funding of higher education altogether and towards corporatisation and privatisation of universities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reelection platform did not make any references to the cost of higher education or rising inequality in India. President Sebastian Pinera of Chile has been accused of using brute police force to outright suppress any protests.

If one were to look at Indian social media sites (and among some mainstream media), the backlash against JNU students has been vociferous. Critics claim that most JNU students were from upper middle class families and were “freeloaders”, “parasites” and a burden on taxpayers since they receive a “free education”. There are memes circulating calling them “pseudo intellectuals” merely trying to maintain their privileged status.

The reality, as BBC reported, is far more nuanced. While some JNU students come from upper middle class families who could afford the 150% fee hike, 42% of student’s family incomes fall below or far below an annual household income of Rs 144,000 which would, if these hikes are implemented, force those students to drop out.

The #FeesMustFall movement is much larger than the Rs 2,000 monthly fee that has sparked the recent protests. Chilean, South African and Indian students have been seen carrying the most telling sign for this movement and moment, “This education policy is anti poor.” While it germinated from fee hikes, these protests are really about the precipitous rise of inequality and cost of education which are leaving poor students behind.

Shakuntala Rao teaches at the Department of Communication Studies, State University of New York, Plattsburgh. The views are personal.

Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
JNU Protests
Students worldwide protest
Fees hike
inequality
Student loans
Access to education
Unemployment
South Africa student protests
Related Stories
unemp

MP Sees Nearly 20-fold Jump in Unemployment Registration This Year, Reveals Govt Data

Cpiml

Bihar: Over Dozen Youth, Students Injured During Protest Demanding Jobs

BOL feb 28

Man Ki Baat: No Thought for Farmers and Unemployment?

Economy ka Hisab Kitab Feb 27

Nearly 50% Youths Unemployed

cpim delhi

CPI(M) Protests Against Modi-Government's ‘Anti-People’ Policies

Daily25022021

Youth Demands Employment from the Government, COVID-19 Updates and more

incres unemp

#Modi_Job_Do: Youth Demand Jobs as Millions of Posts Flood Twitter in India

Abhisar Sharma Feb 22, 2021

Respect for the Farmer, Employment for the Youth!

Aishwarya Yatra

Chennithala’s Aishwarya Kerala Yatra Ends with Violent Protests

Budget 21-22: Mantras Are Not Enough to Revive the Economy

Budget 2021-22: Mantras Are Not Enough to Revive the Economy

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare via EmailShare on RedditShare on KindlePrint
Share
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare via EmailShare on RedditShare on KindlePrint
Share

Related Stories

Newsclick Production

Haryana: 75% Quota for 'Locals' in Private Sector Jobs

05 March 2021
The Haryana government has announced a 75% reservation for locals or local people in private sector jobs which pay up to Rs 50,000.
Subodh Varma

The Real Economy in Two Charts

04 March 2021
Recently, the release
Prudhviraj Rupavath

Unions Fear Privatisation of Ports Pose Threat to Employment and National Security

03 March 2021
Hyderabad: As the Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) is organising the Maritime India Summit 2021 in virtual mode from March 2

Pagination

  • Next page ››

More

  • TMC, AIADMK Release Candidate List for Assembly Polls

    TMC, AIADMK Release Candidate List for Assembly Polls

  • HP eco down

    Himachal Pradesh to Clock Negative Growth of 6.2% in FY21 Due to Pandemic: Eco Survey

  • Coronavirus-Hit  Maharashtra  Economy to Contract 8% in FY21: Eco Survey

    Coronavirus-Hit Maharashtra Economy to Contract 8% in FY21: Eco Survey

  • chian gdp

    China Sets Over 6% GDP Target in 2021 as Economy in Rebound Mode

  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with
about