Hidden privatization of public education
Before, at the outpatient clinic entrance or in the waiting room for consultations, it was common to see several men dressed in suits and briefcases. No shift was expected for the doctor to see. The consultations were about to end to be with him and show the new drugs his company launched to the market. After them they left a merchandising mark: pens, calendars, notepad.
Today, I don't think commercials go to health centers, but that doesn't mean the pharmaceutical industry has retired. He has invented other ways to reach more subtle but effective medical professionals. It is known that the pharmaceutical industry is behind most medical congresses. It seems clear to what extent medical practice conditions the prescription of medications. Also, if you have to take seven pills of whatever, you'll have to buy a 40-pack because nobody has legislated to force the industry to sell loose pills. That is factual power.
What comes from far in health is happening now in education (well, it's also a matter of a lot of time). Education is a business opportunity for large companies, as a product to sell and as a school for future workers without rights. Double business. The list is endless: conferences, conferences, seminars and conferences, international, intercultural, interdisciplinary, with various titles and multiple editions. It has become a natural industry, look at the list of events to be held this year, but not in its entirety:
They said that education was becoming a sales service to customers (families and students), as from a young age they consider themselves consumers and marketing objectives.
XVIII Annual International Conference on Technology, Education and Development; XVI Annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies; XII Conference on Teaching Innovation in Educational Contexts: Methodologies, Spaces and Styles of Learning; XII Interdisciplinary International Congress on Educational Research; XIV International Congress on Improved Learning Methodology
Many already have on the web a breakthrough of next year’s edition. It is surprising that with so many contributions and exchanges of "specialists" the classrooms are as they are. In the last half century, we could be in front of one of the biggest bubbles of capitalism (who dares drill it? No one will do so in view of the candidates who have the potential to form a Basque government).
But when you immerse yourself in the minutes of previous congressional editions, not everything is charlatanic and smoke, although often so. Stephen J. Ball and Deborah Youdell, sociologists of education, have long denounced the "covert privatization of public education" (title of the Preliminary Report for a World Congress). As they explained, covert privatization and the commodification of public education has terrible consequences, and has a direct influence on the same way of understanding what education is. They said that education was becoming a sales service to clients (families and students), as they were considered consumers and marketing objectives from a young age. And I want to stress that this covered privatisation of public education is hidden through the language of education reform, modernisation and innovation. If you think we're puppets an abuse, read the Education Act or previous drafts, it doesn't matter.
Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora
ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.
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