The Satya Niketan incident raises uncomfortable questions for those in power (should they choose to face them). The collapse of the five-storey building on 6 September refocused attention on the old debate over the shoddy quality of building materials, unauthorised construction and lack of adequate hostel facilities for students of Delhi University. It was a Sunday, which increased the risk for those who had shelled out significant amounts of money for paying guest accommodation close to South Campus. At least seven died, and several were critically injured.

The media and their expert panelists, ranging from astrologers to architects, shouted themselves hoarse, but we know that once the dust settles, things will return to ‘normal’ (read: apathetic and indifferent).

Almost three decades ago, a DTC bus carrying schoolchildren fell into the Yamuna river: 30 students died. Similar debates took place then, too. One panelist even observed that had the bus fallen in April-May instead of November there wouldn’t have been so many casualties as the water level in the Yamuna would have been lower!

These so-called debates have pointedly avoided some fundamental questions. Why must students travel hundreds of kilometres to metropolitan centres to access ‘excellence’ in higher education? Whatever happened to the idea of community colleges?

The Kothari Commission’s most revolutionary recommendation — the common school system, whereby children in any given neighbourhood were to attend the same school — was trashed long ago. We are still waiting for an equivalent vision of decentralised, accessible and publicly supported higher education.

The question of ‘funding’ higher education in the country has also been scrupulously ignored.........

© National Herald