Page 22 - EW-June-2024

Education News

community by offering fresh view- which determines un-
points, there’s also the possibility dergrad admissions into
that research standards may be com- 290 engineering colleges
promised if not supported with strict statewide. The KCET test
academic and administrative moni- papers, written by 3.34
toring. The onus will be on colleges lakh class XII students
and universities to maintain strong on April 18-19, included
evaluation standards to guarantee 50 questions which were
high quality of research papers and beyond the syllabus pre-
innovation,” warns Dr. G. Pardha scribed for state board
Saradhi Varma, vice chancellor, pre-university college
KL Deemed University, Guntur. (PUC) students. Follow-
Although there is considerable ing strident protests from
substance in these caveats warning faculty, students and par-
against dilution of the Ph D degree, ents’ associations, the
the plain truth is that thus far, the ef- KAMS' Shashi Kumar (centre right) with CM Siddaramaiah state government issued
forts of India’s sarkari and other re- a statement (April 28)
search have failed to set the Ganges of India’s annual exports of ICT ser- saying that the Karnataka Examina-
on fire. Therefore admitting younger vices valued at $58 billion. tion Authority (KEA) has been direct-
graduates into research programmes However, the quality of school- ed not to evaluate students’ answers to
and teaching at a time when univer- leavers entering the state’s vaunted the 50 out-of-syllabus questions.
sities are experiencing huge faculty higher education institutions (HEIs) Even as the dust was settling down
shortages is an experiment worth is set to diminish because of continu- on this mess, on May 8, the Congress
trying. But even this experiment is ous chaos and confusion in public government issued a notification
unlikely to make meaningful impact K-12 education. In particular, un- scrapping implementation of the Na-
without a mindset change and re- der supervision of the one-year-old tional Education Policy (NEP) 2020
spect for knowledge creation in gov- Congress government and education formulated by the Dr. K. Kasturiran-
ernment and India Inc, which means minister Madhu Bangarappa, K-12 gan Committee after a hiatus of 34
they need to spend more on R&D. education in the state is experiencing years, and proposed formulation of
Autar Nehru (Delhi) unprecedented chaos and confusion. its own State Education Policy under
In March, the Karnataka high court the chairmanship of Prof. Sukhadeo
KARNATAKA issued an order barring the state gov- Thorat, former chairman of the Uni-
Chaos & confusion ernment from conducting ‘board ex- versity Grants Commission (UGC). As
ams’ for class V, VIII and IX students
a result, all undergrad colleges state-
of 56,157 government and private wide which had introduced the four-
y several metrics, the southern schools affiliated with the Karnataka year bachelor’s degree mandated by
state of Karnataka (pop.70 mil- School Examination and Assessment NEP 2020, reverted to the previous
Blion) is India’s most education- Board (KSEAB). Subsequently on ap- three-year degree programme.
ally advanced. Bengaluru, the state’s peal, a two-judge bench of the high The outcome of swirling confusion
admin capital, is widely regarded as court directed KSEAB to conduct the in the state’s education sector mani-
the Silicon Valley of India for host- exams without delay “in the interest fested in the state’s class X SSLC (Sec-
ing a large number of new genre ICT of students”. ondary School Leaving Certificate)
(information communication technol- On April 8, the Supreme Court re- exam. Of the 8.59 lakh students who
ogy) companies and huge back offices strained the state government from wrote the exam, a mere 54 percent (cf.
of IT multinationals including Google, publishing results of the board exams 84 percent in 2023) passed. Expect-
Microsoft, Intel and Accenture. on the ground that conduct of exams ing a huge public outcry, the educa-
The garden city also hosts several for children in elementary classes tion ministry awarded all students
top-ranked science and technology (I-VIII) violates the landmark Right who wrote the exams “grace marks”
higher ed institutions including the of Children to Free & Compulsory and pushed the pass percentage to
Indian Institute of Science, National Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which 73.4. “The pass percentage declined
Institute of Advanced Studies, IIM- prohibits formal exams for primary/ by 30 percentage points over last year.
Bangalore, National Law School of In- elementary school children. Hence, the government has decided to
dia University with Karnataka hosting Simultaneously, another row enhance normalisation in the interest
290 engineering colleges. Unsurpris- erupted over conduct of the Karnataka of students. Grace marks have been in-
ingly, the state contributes 20 percent Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2024, creased from 10 percent to 20 percent

22 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2024