Page 24 - EW July 2024

Education News

that era as falsified and inaccurate. the state government
According to Dr. Saagar has escalated simmer-
Tewari, associate professor of his- ing tension between the
tory at the top-ranked O.P. Jindal education ministry and
Global University, Sonipat, history is the women and child
an important subject as it provides “a development (WCD)
chronological architecture in young ministry as government
minds” and a basic understanding schools fall under the
of their society. “History is to society former’s jurisdiction and
what memory is to an individual — a anganwadis under WCD.
repository of the past. At the same Reacting, Chief Minis-
time, there are some past events ter Siddaramaiah has
which are disturbing and should be ordered chief secretary
sanitised to maintain social peace L.K. Atheeq to initiate
and harmony — Partition of India parleys between the two
in 1947 for instance.” Responding WCD minister Laxmi Hebbalkar: upskilling plan ministries and arrive at a
to NCERT director Dinesh Saklani’s workable solution.
justification for toning down violent grade 20,000 (of a total 62,580) an- n June 24, a meeting was called
historic events, he says it’s pertinent ganwadis into pre-primaries to make Oby the chief minister between
to note that even in England/Scot- them ‘NEP compliant’ was announced Madhu Bangarappa, minister for
land, history textbooks have “totally by the state’s BJP government in school education and literacy, and
sanitised the violence and brutality 2022. A year later, a new Congress Laxmi Hebbalkar, minister of
of British imperialism”. government was voted into power in WCD. After these parleys, the CM’s
In 1916, American motorcars ty- the legislative assembly election of office announced that the education
coon Henry Ford (1863-1947) opined May 2023. Fortunately, although it ministry has been directed not to start
that history is bunk. NCERT doesn’t has rejected and scrapped statewide any new pre-primaries in government
seem to place much value on it either implementation of NEP 2020 legis- schools beyond the already sanctioned
Autar Nehru (Delhi) lated by the BJP government at the 2,786, and that a committee of experts
Centre, it has continued to upgrade will soon be constituted to chalk out a
KARNATAKA the state’s anganwadis. plan to upgrade the state’s anganwa-
Indeed, according to some ECCE
Early education educators, the state’s Congress gov- dis to deliver equivalent quality early
years education. But the challenge of
conundrum ernment has ventured beyond up- transforming anganwadis into pre-
primaries is that the overwhelming
grading anganwadis, and permitted
262 composite government schools to
majority of anganwadi workers are
fter the national education start kindergarten sections (LKG and class X secondary school-leavers with
Policy (NEP) 2020 mandated UKG) in 2023-24. no formal training in early childhood
Areconfiguration of the 10+2 With these KG sections running education.
primary-secondary schooling system successfully, on June 11, the state’s “Anganwadis were promoted under
into a new 5+3+3+4 continuum for- education ministry issued an order the Centre’s Integrated Child Devel-
mally integrating early childhood care to start pre-primary/KG classes in an opment Scheme (ICDS) in 1976 and
and education (ECCE) into elemen- additional 1,008 government primary entrusted with five responsibilities
tary education, several states across schools in the Kalyana Karnataka re- — immunisation of children, provi-
the country have begun the process of gion (educationally backward districts sion of nutrition, provision of health
integrating three years of early child- of Bidar, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Yadgir, checkups, health/nutrition education
hood education by introducing kin- Ballari, Vijayanagara, and Koppal) and pre-primary education. Until NEP
dergarten sections in composite pri- and 578 schools in other districts. 2020 was legislated, no government
mary/secondary government schools However, this latest government ini- emphasised the education function of
and/or upgrading anganwadis — tiative has riled the state’s 69,000 anganwadis. Now they want angan-
Central/state government-promoted anganwadi workers who fear loss of wadi workers to transform overnight
nutritional centres for newborns and employment. They apprehend that into early childhood teachers with the
lactating mothers — into pre-primary parents will enrol youngest children threat that failing this transformation,
schools. for pre-primary classes in government they will start pre-primary sections in
In the southern state of Karnataka schools rather than in anganwadis. government schools. This will be a big
(pop.69 million), an initiative to up- Simultaneously, this initiative of mistake as thousands of anganwadi

24 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2024