Page 26 - EW 1-156 May 2024

Education News

structure and provide good quality KARNATAKA KCET is a make-or-break com-
education. But their classrooms are petitive exam for PUC students
depleted because parents are enrolling Mess & messier because it determines admission
their children in private schools under into all professional colleges state-
s.12 (1) (c). Moreover, since minority n education mess in this wide providing non-medical higher
schools are exempt, of Maharashtra’s southern state which has education — engineering, pharmacy,
45,000 private schools only 8,000 are Aappropriated its descrip- veterinary science etc. Under a seat-
admitting poor students and the pres- tion as the Silicon Valley of India, sharing agreement between the state
sure for admission in them is intense. has become messier. On April 8, government and private professional
Also since free-of-charge education is the Supreme Court restrained the college managements, 45 percent of
only up to class VIII, children suffer state’s Congress government from seats in private colleges are allotted
severe shock and trauma if their par- publishing results of board exams to successful KCET students at a
ents cannot pay class IX-XII fees and held in March for classes V, VIII and subsidised annual fee of Rs.20,000-
move them to government schools. IX students of KSEAB (Karnataka 80,000 (cf. Rs.83,000-Rs.2.3 lakh).
After studying the implementation of School Examination and Assessment This year, an estimated 120,000
the RTE Act in Karnataka, Haryana, Board)-affiliated schools. Because private college seats are available for
and Punjab, which have framed simi- the landmark Right of Children to top-ranked KCET students.
lar Rules, last year we also amended Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) According to aggrieved students
our Rules,” says Suraj Mandhare, and parents, several questions
Deputy Commissioner of Education, were taken from class XI-XII
Government of Maharashtra. syllabuses of the pan-India
lthough Mandhare justifies this CBSE and CISCE exam boards.
Atweaking of the RTE Act Rules They contend that this put the
which further dilutes the intent of s.12 majority of students, enrolled
(1) (c) of the RTE Act, according to in PU colleges affiliated with
some monitors of Maharashtra’s edu- the state’s Pre-University Board
cation scene, the prime intent behind at a disadvantage. Moreover,
the new Rule is to prevent children the state government had
of poor households fleeing to private ‘rationalised’ the pre-university
schools. As a result in dozens of gov- syllabus in 2023-24, i.e, deleted
ernment schools teachers (who can’t some chapters of textbooks to
be sacked) are close to outnumbering Students writing KCET: out-of-syllabus questions reduce curriculum load of high-
students. Besides the state govern- er secondary (PU) students.
ment is feeling the pinch of reimburs- Act, 2009, prohibits stressful formal With the chorus of public pro-
ing private schools even the lower fees exams for children in elementary tests getting louder while voting in
of educating poor children as provided (classes I-VIII). Now, another con- General Election 2024 has com-
by s.12 (2) of the Act. Currently, the troversy has erupted over conduct menced (the first round of voting in
state government reportedly owes pri- of the Karnataka Common Entrance Karnataka concluded on April 26 and
vate schools fees aggregating Rs.1,463 Test (KCET) 2024, the gateway for the second concludes on May 7), the
crore under s.12 (2). undergrad admissions into 290 state’s Congress government elected
Clearly the logical option for gov- professional education colleges last May (2023) issued a statement
ernment is to upgrade and modernise statewide. on April 28 saying that KEA has been
its 61,127 public schools — and espe- Soon after 3.34 lakh class XII directed not to evaluate students
cially eliminate Marathi as the sole students wrote KCET on April 18-19, answers to the 50 out-of-syllabus
medium of education in government social media was flooded with com- questions. “An Expert Committee
elementaries — so that they become plaints that test papers included over Report has determined several ques-
the first choice of poor households. 50 questions which were beyond the tions from the deleted chapters of
But that’s a task evidently beyond the syllabus prescribed for state board the rationalised syllabus of 11th and
capability of education ministry ba- pre-university college (PUC) stu- 12th PUC syllabus of 2023-24. Keep-
bus. Tweaking the Rules to force chil- dents. Several higher secondary PUC ing in view the Expert Committee
dren to attend sub-standard govern- colleges (class XI-XII), faculty and report and opinion of many stake-
ment schools is the soft option. (As we parents’ associations have registered holders and the paramount interest
go to the press on May 6, the Bombay protests with the Karnataka Ex- of protecting the legitimate interests
high court has stayed the new Rule). aminations Authority (KEA) which of the students in mind, KEA is
Nasrin Modak Siddiqi (Mumbai) conducts the test. directed to remove questions that

26 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2024