The following paper outlines some of the crucial aspects of education as well as changes in the institutional environment that are shaping with the rise of global capitalism. It is argued that the main purpose of education is to democratise the minds of students and help them become responsible and sensitive social beings. But the dominant market paradigm has subverted and co-opted education for its own benefits. The paper situates the education market in the political economy of capitalism and it is argued that the intensification of capitalism inevitably leads to such situations where education and consequently humanity becomes a commodity-a distinct and alienated form of capital. In the end the wider implications of such commodification for the democratic values and the future of the society are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Kumar, Krishna (1987). ‘Reproduction or Change? Education and Elites in India’, in Ghosh, Ratna and Zachariah, Mathew (eds.) Education and the Process of Change, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
2.
Nigam, Aditya (2001). “Dislocating Delhi : A City in the 1990s,” Sarai Reader 2001: The Public Domain, available at http://www.sarai.net/journal/pdf/040-046%20(industry).pdf, accessed on July 27, 2006.
3.
Sadgopal, Anil (2003). “Exclusion and Inequality in Education : The State Policy and Globalisation, Contemporary India,” Journal of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 2(3) July-September 2003, pp. 1–36.
4.
Sadgopal, Anil (2004). Globalisation: Demystifying its Knowledge Agenda for India's Educational Policy, Durgabai Deshmukh Memorial Lecture: Council for Social Development and India International Centre.
5.
Sassen, Saskia (2001). The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
6.
Velaskar, Padma (1990). ‘Unequal Schooling as a Factor in the Reproduction of Social Inequality in India’, Sociological Bulletin, 39 (1&2), pp.131–14.
7.
Chandru, K. (2006). “Teachers on Sale: Contract-based Teachers are now Gurus,” Combat Law, Vol.5, Issue 1, February-March, pp. 45–49.
8.
Combat Law (2006). Commodiflcation and Cooption of Language, Vol. 5, Issue 1. February-March, pp. 28.
9.
Desai, Mihir (2006). ‘Retreat of the Judiciary: Last Frontier Lost?’, Combat Law, Vol. 5, Issue I, February-March, pp. 50–52.
10.
Freiré, Paulo (1970)[1993]. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos, London: Penguin.
11.
Giroux, Henry (1998). “Education Incorporated?” Educational Leadership, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 12–17.
12.
Giroux, Henry A. (2002). “The Corporate War Against Higher Education,” Workplace, issue 5(1), available at: http://www.louisville.edu/journal/workplace/issue5pl/giroux.html
13.
Goldstein, Harvey (2004). “Education for All: The Globalisation of Learning Targets,” Comparative Education, vol. 40(1), pp. 7–14.
14.
Gorky, Maxim (1914)[1987], “Anton Chekhov,” in Anton Chekhov, Collected Works: Volume I-Stories 1880-1885, Translated by Alex Miller and Ivy Litvinov, Moscow: Raduga, pp. 7–22.
15.
Government of India (2005). Draft Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill.
16.
Harris, Kevin (1979). Education and Knowledge: The Structured Misrepresentation of Reality, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
17.
India Today (June 5, 2006). Top Ten Colleges, pp. 34-57.
18.
Khadaria, Binod (2004). “Higher Education Under the WTO Regime of Trade in Services : A Critical Comment,” in Kumar, Arun (ed.), Challenges Facing Indian Universities: Collection of Papers Based on a Seminar Organised by JNUTA on October 2, 2004 in Jawaharlal Nehru University, JNUTA, New Delhi, pp. 68–72.
19.
Marx, Karl (1976). Capital Vol. I, (Translated by Ben Fowkes), Penguin, London.
20.
McLaren, P. and Rikowski, G. (2001). Pedagogy for Revolution against Education for Capital: An E-Dialogue on Education in Capitalism Today, Cultural Logic: An Electronic Journal of Marxist Theory and Practice, Vol.4No.l, at: http://eserver.org/clogic/4-1/mclaren&rikowski.html
21.
Murmann, Johann Peter (2003). Knowledge and Competitive Advantage, Cambridge: OUP.
22.
North, Douglas C. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance: Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions, Cambridge: CUP.
23.
Rikowski, Glenn (2002a). “Prelude: Marxist Educational Theory After Postmodernism,” Dave Hill, Peter McLaren, Mike Cole, Glenn Rikowski (ed.), Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory, Oxford: Lexington, pp. 15–32.
24.
Rikowski, Glenn (2002b). “Education, Capital and the Trans Human,” Dave Hill, Peter McLaren, Mike Cole, Glenn Rikowski (ed.), Marxism Against Postmoderninsm in Educational Theory, Oxford: Lexington, pp. 111–143.
25.
Sadgopal, Anil (2006). ‘Privatisation of Education: An Agenda of the Global Market, Combat Law, Vol. 5, Issue I, February-March, pp. 22–27’.
26.
Spence, Michael (1973). “Job Market Signalling,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 87, No. 3, pp. 355–374.
27.
Tilak, Jandhyala B. G. (2004). “Laissez-Faireism in Higher Education in India,” in Kumar, Arun (ed.), Challenges Facing Indian Universities: Collection of Papers Based on a Seminar Organised by JNUTA on October 2, 2004 in Jawaharlal Nehru University, JNUTA, New Delhi, pp 62–67.
28.
Times of India, Delhi Times, (July 2, 2006), International Curriculum Produces Original Thinkers, p 1,
29.
Togliatti, Palmiro (1976). Lectures on Fascism, New York: International Publishers.
30.
WTO, Council for Trade in Services (September 23, 1998), Education Services: Background Note by the Secretariat, S/C/W/49, available at: http://www.esib.org/commodification/documents/education_wto_backgroundpap.pdf
31.
WTO, Trade in Services Division (October 1999), An Introduction to the GATS, available at: http://www.esib.org/commodification/documents/introgatswto.pdf
