Kerala – Welcoming the recent report of the Justice KT Thomas Commission regarding fixation of a uniform fee structure for self-financing colleges, the Inter-Church Council for Education, an umbrella organisation of Christian management bodies based in the southern state of India, has strongly condemned what it has termed “attempts by certain forces to mobilise public opinion against the K.T. Thomas Commission report and against the self-financing colleges in the State.”

A recent press release issued by the Council stated that the Commission had given its recommendations based on the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the matter of fee to be charged by self-financing professional colleges. It said the Commission had recommended a certain fee structure after taking into account the functioning of self-financing professional colleges outside the State and after hearing the arguments of many persons concerned with this matter. Even so, those who run self-financing engineering colleges have said this fee is very low.

The press release further stated that students and parents would readily agree with those who said that self-financing colleges should charge a very low fee or even offer free education to meritorious students who come from poor families. Though it was also easy to organise strikes and agitations in this regard, the press release added that it had to be borne in mind that self-financing colleges could not be run like Government colleges, which get crores of rupees as annual support from the Government.

It noted that some politicians might have said that two self-financing colleges would equal one Government college. If this was to be brought about, it argued, then the Government should be prepared to give what it provided as monetary support to one of its colleges to two self-financing colleges. Besides the fact that various Universities in the state charged lakhs of rupees annually as fee from the self-financing colleges, the press release suggested that it was also needed to be kept in mind that the Government got from the self-financing colleges much more than the entire fee given by the students in Government colleges put together.

In Kottayam, the Kerala Council of Churches, an organization of Protestant Churches in the southern state of India, affiliated to the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), has appealed to the management bodies of self-financing professional colleges to act in a manner without profit motives and view their investment in the education sector as part of their social commitment.

Hailing the recent recommendation to fix a uniform fee structure by the Justice K.T. Thomas Commission for self-financing engineering and medical colleges, KCC president Rev Dr Issac Mar Philexinos, in a statement, also suggested the formation of a common fund by the State Government to compensate the excess fee paid by a merit category students undergoing professional courses in self-financing colleges. The KCC felt that an education cess could be levied upon those highly qualified and successful professionals in the field of medicine and engineering for the purpose. Management bodies, on their part, should consider fee concession for the eligible, financially backward candidates.

The KCC also called upon the Government to frame provisions to ensure the services of medical graduates for a minimum three years in public institutions after their passing out.

The Government should end its attempt to withdraw from the education sector, the council recommended.