Recent developments and strategic decisions regarding "Education for All schemes:Net Neutrality"- backed by philanthropist businesses such as InternET.org- have taken a sour turn after it has emerged that student body and a swathe of alumni staged protests against the proposed plans. The downhill journey started when Bharati Vidyatel, a leading correspondent University, decided to restructure the way students pay their fees.
Currently, students pay a base fee and are free to explore anything they may have an interest in. There is no limit to how many courses a student can register for, and how many years he stays in the university. "There is no definite graduation plan for our type of universities" said Mr. Sirla, the Director of IIN.
However, this will be changing soon. Recent studies and trends have shown that students are preferring one stream within the education system-social sciences, and the demand for the same has risen exponentially. After this observation, TRY, the Education body has given the universities the freedom to change fee structure and charge as per courses a student registers for.
"Our recent study shows that students have an inclination towards social sciences, and the number of people registering for the course has increased manifold times, as compared to a few years back. Keeping that in mind, and considering the cost of providing free education to all, we needed to hike fees" said the Vice Chancellor of Bharati VidyaTel. "As a responsible social organization, we have to ensure that we make sufficient cash for ourselves and our philanthropic sponsors to keep the idea of education for all alive" he added.
Social Sciences, which has a huge goodwill funding from some very large tech firms will be given free of cost. It is slated to be a fast track course, where students can hang out for infinity and share, like and comment on their path breaking thoughts, pouts, and half cooked domain knowledge. Instantgram, an online practical course, which specializes in peer reviewed photojournals, will be offered free of cost as well. These and many other similar courses which are in demand will be provided free of cost. Additional charges will be applied for all trivial .edu courses and for startup courses, with students having to dish out extra cash for accessing contents of these courses.
The move, however, has not gone down well with the students. Large scale protests are erupting in all campuses, with outraged students and alumni feeling their freedom in education is being snatched away. "The fees are high as it is. The teaching is very slow, and now they want to increase fees. Where will we find our next Sahu if this trend continues?"asked a furious student.
Mr Sahu, a recipient for Rajeev Gandhi Jagatik Shastragnya Award for his contributions in Engineering and Technology fiercely criticized the move. "I received all my education for free at the base fee. Its illegal to hike up fees in this way. You have to give students access to all contents in the university equally. If this was done in our times, I would have never been able to do independent research in Bakery Automation. I have never been to a library after I flunked my IIT exams, but Ive heard that there you do not obstruct students from entering any section. Same must be the case here. We have that in place in IIN currently". Mr Sahu is the second most successful Alumni of IIN, a university which was to propose the fee hike as well. Mr Sahu is the known inventor of developing an egg carrying drone. He was widely acclaimed for his achievements and was awarded with Rajeev Gandhi Jagatik Shastragnya award for his contribution in "Indira Gandhi Khadya Maal Vahatuk Yojana" and "UPAY(II) Bhook Hatao Yojana".
Confusing net secularism with crop secularism, Mr. Rajul Handi, the vice chief of Secular Farmers Union of India Association chipped in with his 2 million cents, "Increasing the crop fees in this fashion will be detrimental to the united progress and alliance of the country- It undermines the efforts of the previous board of governors in handing out free doles of cash crops."Mr. Rajul Handi is one of the top alumni of IIN, and its most distinguished topper.. "The current crop course has resulted in an economic boom for overseers of farming community. With this oppressive fee structure, the farmers will be at great loss" he added. Dragjoy Singh, the left hand aide of Rajul Handi interrupted his boss and said "This is all an RSS conspiracy. It just wants more subscribers by proposing automatic blog updates."
Meanwhile, TRY has handed out a questionnaire to all Correspondent course students regarding fee structure feedback. It is to announce its plan regarding the same in near future.
