Page 26 - EW-June-2024

Education News

of 42,000 candidates appointed disrupted recovery even two years
primary school teachers. Cases al- after the Covid pandemic. With 80
leging favouritism in compiling the percent of recruitment of teachers
final list of candidates who wrote during TMC rule being exposed as
this exam are pending in the Calcutta illegal, the blame for West Bengal’s
high court. teacher recruitment freeze is increas-
In this connection, it’s pertinent ingly being placed at the door of
to note that the Teacher Eligibility Chief Minister Banerjee.
Test (TET) was introduced by West Within a few days of writing
Bengal’s CPM government in 1998 this despatch, the writing is likely
and conducted smoothly until 2010 to appear on Banerjee’s wall. If
when the CPM which ruled Bengal BJP wins more seats than it won in
uninterruptedly for 34 years (1977- General Election 2019, it will mark
2011) was routed by TMC in the the beginning of the end for the chief
legislative assembly election of 2011. minister and TMC. If not, Bengal’s
However, after TMC was swept government school children will
to power in West Bengal in 2011, continue to suffer poor learning
hundreds of writ petitions alleg- outcomes.
ing irregularities and corruption in Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)
the annual TET have flooded the
Calcutta high court. Although 98,648 UTTAR PRADESH
teachers and non-teaching staff
have been recruited and appointed Ritual punishment According to academics in Luc-
through TETs in the past 13 years know, the fines have been imposed
— 28,322 in 2012, 18,793 in 2013, edical education in uttar to prompt medical colleges to clean
42,000 in 2015 and 9,533 in 2021 Pradesh — India’s most up their act even as the state’s BJP
— of these teachers is tenuous with Mpopulous state (215 million) government is expanding the capac-
writs against recruitment also pend- — is a mess. For one, the entire state ity of medical colleges statewide. This
ing in the high court. covering an area of 243,286 sq. km is year total capacity in medical col-
Nor are these widespread allega- served by 72,757 registered medical leges which is currently 3,828 seats
tions of corruption in the teach- (allopathic) practitioners, a ratio of is scheduled to be increased by 1,300
ers’ recruitment process and writ 1:3,800 doctor per 100,000 popula- seats in 35 government medical col-
petitions flooding the courts without tion cf. the proportion of 1:1,000 rec- leges (cf. 30 in private sector). The
substance. On July 23, 2022 the Cen- ommended by WHO (World Health minimum number of seats a licensed
tral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Organisation). Moreover, these qual- medical college is obliged to provide
arrested education minister Partha ified medical practitioners are clus- is 100 (the most common number).
Chatterjee who during a long innings tered in UP’s major cities — Lucknow, Some large colleges offer more seats
as education minister (2014-21) in Kanpur, Varanasi and Gorakhpur. with the largest number of 250 pro-
Banerjee’s cabinet had presided over Citizens in the sprawling state’s hin- vided by Rajshree Medical Research
WBSSE. Chatterjee’s arrest after a terland are obliged to make do with Institute, Bareilly; Mayo Institute of
huge stash of Rs.100 crore in bank the services of ayurvedic, unani and Medical Sciences, Lucknow; Rama
notes was found in the flat of his self-styled medical practitioners. Medical College and Research Centre,
mistress, was followed by a spate On May 20, presumably to raise Hapur among others. The number of
of arrests of other WBSSE officials standards of the profession, the newly seats available in the show-piece All
involved in the teacher recruitment constituted National Medical Com- India Institute of Medical Sciences,
scandal. mission (NMC, estb.2020), which Gorakhpur — chief minister Yogi Ad-
Tragically, two years after schools replaced the scandals-ridden Medical ityanath’s constituency — is 225.
reopened following the country’s Council of India three years ago, im- Although the popular belief is that
most prolonged schools closure posed fines ranging from Rs.2-20 lakh private medical colleges cut corners
in Bengal (99 weeks), children in for “irregularities” on several of UP’s and disregard rules, the highest pen-
government schools are at higher 65 medical colleges. The irregulari- alty of Rs.20 lakh has been levied on
risk of learning loss and dropping ties included acts of commission and the government-owned King George’s
out. With a large number of teachers omission such as less than required Medical University, Lucknow, widely
dismissed, schools across the state faculty, inadequate equipment and regarded as one of the best country-
are facing staff shortages which has poor infrastructure maintenance. wide. The medical college of Banaras

26 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2024