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India to oppose education issue at WTO meet

Ranvir Nayar in Paris

India will strongly resist any attempt by the developed world to put education on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation meet in Doha next month.

"An attempt is being made by some countries to introduce education as one of the services and to apply the rules of the WTO to it," Indian Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said.

"But we are strongly against any such move. Commercialising education is not acceptable to us."

Some countries like the US, Canada, Germany, Britain and France insist on including education as one of the services for negotiations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services discussions now underway in Geneva.

They have divided education into five domains -- basic or primary, secondary, higher or university education, technical education and other education.

Developed countries, backed by their strong network of private and public universities, have been saying the WTO should bring education under the same rules that govern other services. This would allow their universities to set up bases or have commercial ties with other universities across the globe.

But India and some developing countries are strongly resisting this.

"Education is not a saleable commodity, it is the fundamental right of every human being and each country has to formulate its own education policies as per the local culture and situation. It is not something where the same yardstick can be applied across the globe," said Joshi.

He noted that even with India, education and its emphasis changed dramatically from one state to another.

India has long held that if education is treated like any other commodity, developing countries will be deprived of every aspect of education and it will pose a huge problem for these countries.

"It can lead to a situation where all the research and development activities become even more concentrated in the hands of the developed world and thus deprive the developing countries of access to the results of research and development."

He said the basic principles governing education should be affordability and accessibility and by treating it as a commercial service, citizens of developing countries will be deprived of their fundamental rights.

Joshi said India has been holding consultations with other developing countries in order to draw up a cohesive strategy for the Doha meeting, in order to ensure that the developed countries do not steamroll their way through.

Indo-Asian News Service
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