 |
| The Flag of SFI |
The Students’s Federation of India (SFI) is one of the major students’ organizations in India, founded in 1970, is linked politically to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It is led at the all-India level by P.K. Biju (President) and Ritubrata Banerjee (General Secretary). SFI firmly believes in the importance of Education for transforming the society. Proper education, they believe, will build a new society based on rationality and justice.
As followers of the leftist ideology, the SFI holds the incumbency and lack of accountability on the part of the present govt. solely responsible for the plight of the ‘aam aadmi’ who have to face the serious problems of price rise, natural resource management and food security. They believe that these issues and also those relating to development are not merely a matter for technocratic adjustments but one that needs serious questioning of our growth strategies.
For this year’s DUSU elections seeks to reassert the correct political practice and to remove the visible signs of corruption – moral and financial – and the inefficacy from our campus. The SFI in alliance with the AISF would strive to achieve the following agendas if voted to power:
1. To organist the students in schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions of the country and also Indian students studying abroad under its banner to build a powerful and well-knit student movement for the upliftment and betterment of the student community
2. To take active interest in the struggle for liquidation of the evil legacies of colonialism and for building in our country an independent, democratic and socialist society to insure a prosperous and progressive future for our people.
3. To establish a democratic, scientific and progressive educational system ensuring education and job for all that will be facilitated by the implementation of comprehensive land reforms, elimination of the stranglehold of international finance capital and indigenous monopoly capitalism.
4. To organist the student community in the struggles of the wider democratic movement of the workers, peasants, and other progressive forces and to seek their cooperation and support to achieve the immediate demands and aims.
5. To achieve the democratic rights of the student community
- Right to democratic and independent expression and behavior.
- Right to form student unions and associations and right to assemble
- Right to participate in the management of all educational institutions and of all bodies connected with the academic and other affairs of student life.
6. To work for free universal and compulsory education up to secondary stage and abolition of all school fees up to plus two stage.
and for all necessary and complete facilities of education, hostel.
scholarships, sports and cultural and social activities that would be adequate and within the reach of all students. To ensure that education upto primary level is provided in mother tongue.
7. To struggle for guarantee of employment after completion of education or unemployment grants till employed and fight for the recognition of the right to work as a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right.
8. To fight against every manifestation of, and oppression or discrimination based on, religion, caste, language. race, region or gender and to work for secularism, communal harmony, amity and equality of all.
9. To extend warm solidarity to all the progressive forces of the world struggling for freedom, national independence and socialism.
10. To establish fraternal and friendly relations with all other student organizations, which are pledged to work for secularism, democracy and socialism and to have united action with other student organizations on specific issues and demands.
11. GSCASH: Delhi is an unsafe city, we are reminded often. But if one makes the mistake for demanding a possible solution, one is squarely recommended a self defense class. However, AISF - SFI believes that a solution exists outside the karate classes in revitalizing of the Gender Sensitization Committee against Sexual Harassment. Many assume sexual harassment to be a girls- student specific issue which is not the case. On paper, the DU has a GSCASH but it has been dormant for past many years. AISF - SFI has had a history of running successful campaigns for GSCASH especially in the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The need is to hold regular elections to the office of the committee the campaign for which will allow a greater awareness towards the body and will also enable more students to think of it as a serious option for redressal of cases pertaining to sexual harassment. AISF - SFI also believes that the ambit of the committee cannot be limited and it should be given powers to hear cases and recommend serious punitive measures for those found guilty.
12. Hindi and other Vernacular mediums: While there is no denying that the medium of instruction in DU is English, there is no denial of entry to students coming from non- English mediums. Since a huge section of kids come from north India, it has been found that many students especially those coming from Hindi- Urdu medium schools find it difficult to make an overnight transformation to the English language instructions in DU colleges and result in their poor scores and eventual drop out. The hasty introduction of the semester system has also meat that students who had almost 8- 9 months to make the transition into the English medium are left with only a month or so to adjust to a system quite alien to their earlier institutions. No thought has been put to address this serious problem as is evident from the abysmal conditions of translation projects or remedial classes. There is a dire need to introduce texts/ books in Hindi and other vernacular languages and initiate bridge courses for students coming from such educational backgrounds.
13. Student Cards for the Delhi Metro: The metro network came as a boon to many students across the city as it made the campus accessible from many points in the city. It was meant to be an efficient and modern means of public transit which is of course, desirable. However, recently the metro tariffs have seen a hike in the name of recovering the initial costs. As the DMRC is a public private partnership, the need for recovering money will take precedence but it cannot come at the cost of making the metro network unaffordable for the students. If one sees instances of mass transit in many other countries, one sees special efforts made by the governments to subsidize the services for students. A similar initiative should be introduced for students travelling in the metro as well. They can be issued Student Cards that will enable a higher ridership. After all, any effort for recovery will be bolstered by making the service more popular rather than increasing the tariffs and limiting the number of people who can regularly enjoy the service.
14. U – Special: The University Specials was an initiative of the Delhi Transport Corporation to provide buses to students to the twin campuses of the University. However, as the intake has increased and the geographical spread of the students has increased within the city especially those commuting from west and east ends of the city. But what has been seen is that instead of increasing the DTC fleet dedicated to the U Special service, the facility has shrunk. AISF - SFI demands an expansion of the U special fleet and expanding its geographical outreach.
15. Opening New Colleges and Evening Classes: The sky high cut-off percentages for admissions to DU have already generated a national debate. These high cut-off percentages only foreground the lack of adequate quality higher educational institutions in our country and the consequent difficulties posed before the student community in access to higher education. It is estimated that only 9% of our country’s youth in the age group of 17-23 years have access to higher education. Out of the 1.78 lakh students passing the Class 12 exam from Delhi this year, most were not able to enter DU. This calls for a massive expansion of our public education system. However, the last new college created in DU was nearly two decades ago! Even the demand for double shifts in all DU colleges, which can create more seats at minimal expenditure, has been consistently denied. Rather, the HRD Minister is resorting to fraudulent measures like promoting more private universities and the proposed Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, which will only legitimize trade in education and create elite conclaves of education. AISF - SFI calls for complete rejection of such duplicity and urges the expansion of colleges and starting of evening classes.
16. Proper Examination System under the New Semester System: The new semester system has also thrown up a set of challenges to the way a student’s academic performance are being evaluated. The internal scores that a student earns is left to no system of scrutiny or review. The AISF - SFI is aware that the internal scores cannot be brought under the purview of the university as it is the sole prerogative of the individual college. However, we suggest the immediate setting up of a student faculty committee (SFC) that can undertake review of internals that are awarded so that to ensure transparency to the whole system.
CHARTER OF DEMANDS:
1. Ensure Education for all, jobs for all.
2. Allocate 10% of the Central budget, 6% of the GDP and 30% of state budget for education.
3. Recognise the right to education and the right to employment as fundamental rights in the Constitution of the country.
4. Ensure a democratic, scientific and progressive education system.
5. Return education to the state list.
6. Protect and promote the democratization of education. Ensure democratic rights of the entire academic community and the democratic rights of the student community in particular.
7. Provide free education up to secondary stage and abolish tuition fees up to higher secondary stage.
8. Stop communalisation of education
9. Stop commercialization of education.
10. Provide adequate facilities of education and scope for sports, cultural and literary activities accessible to all.
11. Reform and develop the entire education system and particularly pedagogy and the evaluation system on scientific and progressive lines.
12. Provide and protect the rights and opportunities of the scheduled castes, tribes, OBCs and all marginalized sections in the area of education and employment.
13. Ensure that all educational institutes are free from sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Form committees against sexual harassment as directed by the Supreme Court in all educational institutes.
14. Ensure social control over all private educational institutions in the country for the regulation of fess, admission process and the content of education.
15. Curb all forms of corruption in the sphere of education.
16. Education up to primary level should be provided in the mother tongue and at subsequent levels in one's, mother tongue, regional, state or national language.
