Page 26 - EW July 2024

Education News

workers will lose their jobs. In sev- working parents from disadvantaged remptory cancellation of NEET-PG
eral memoranda to the government communities. A state government that and UGC-NET, has provided her an
we have demanded that anganwadis is bold enough to do this together with opportunity to build a strong nar-
should be recognised as formal pre- the curricular and pedagogic reforms rative of spreading discontent with
primaries/ECCE centres and all an- mandated by NEP 2020 will be able the education policies and initiatives
ganwadi workers with school-leaving to revolutionise not only early years of the BJP/NDA government at the
qualifications should be provided education but also early years care giv- Centre.
training to deliver early childhood ing which is almost completely absent On June 24, Banerjee wrote to
education,” says Varalakshmi, today depriving working parents from Prime Minister Narendra Modi
president of CITU (Centre of Indian EWS (economically weaker sections) urging him to abolish NEET-UG
Trade Unions) which represents the a very basic facility,” says Prof. B.S. and revert to the system of states
Anganwadi Workers Association. Rishikesh, Head — Hub for Educa- conducting their own medical college
ccording to WCD minister tion, Law, and Policy, Azim Premji entrance exams. “The decentral-
ALaxmi Hebbalkar, the state University, Bengaluru. ised system was later changed to a
government has drawn up a plan to With NEP 2020 having clearly unitary and centralised system of
upskill anganwadi workers. Under highlighted the critical importance examination (NEET) so as to take
the plan, anganwadi staff with bach- of formal early childhood education, complete control of admissions
elor’s degrees will be trained in the there’s an emerging consensus among in the country to medical courses
first phase, class XII graduates in the educators that all pre-primary educa- without any involvement of state
second and class X school-leavers in tion and care institutions including governments. This is completely
the third phase. The top-ranked Azim anganwadis, should fall within the ju- unacceptable and violates the true
Premji University, Bengaluru has been risdiction of the education ministry at spirit of the federal structure of the
entrusted with the task of upskilling the Centre and in the states, allowing country. Further, the present system
anganwadi centre heads. WCD to focus on issues of gender eq- has led to massive corruption which
Yet upskilling and training of these uity, egalitarianism, and greater par- benefits only the rich who can afford
workers requires the Central and state ticipation of women in the workforce. to pay (for coaching classes), while
governments to substantially raise Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) meritorious students belonging to
the budgetary allocation for ICDS. the poor and middle class suffer and
In 2024-25, the (Congress) govern- WEST BENGAL are the biggest victims,” said the
ment allocated Rs.4,500 crore for missive from Banerjee to the PM.
the state’s 62,580 anganwadis with Mamata strikes back She also added that states spend
an enrollment of 3.6 million chil- over Rs.50 lakh per doctor towards
dren — Rs.12,500 per child per year he political storm gener- education and internship, which is
— an amount insufficient to provide ated in Parliament in Delhi why states “should be given freedom
adequate nutrition, let alone profes- Tby the National Eligibility- to select medical students through
sionally administered pre-primary cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate joint entrance examination”.
education. (NEET-UG) scam, in which as many This year, 1.02 lakh students from
“The budget outlay of the WCD as 67 students scored a perfect 720, West Bengal wrote NEET-UG 2024
ministry needs to be substantially in- and over 1,500 were awarded booster of whom 59,053 passed with three
creased. Dr. Kasturirangan commit- “grace marks”, has come as a fortu- scoring the maximum possible 720
tee’s NEP 2020 draft report clearly itous opportunity for Banerjee: NEET abolition missive
shows how investment in early years Bengal’s ruling Trin-
education by far outweighs invest- amool Congress (TMC)
ment in other stages of school edu- government and chief
cation or skills education. With an- minister Mamata Ba-
ganwadis already discharging several nerjee to strike back at
duties, workers/helpers need not fear the BJP. Banerjee and
losing their jobs and protest the in- TMC have been vocal
troduction of early years education critics of the centralisa-
in government schools. Anganwadi tion of education, in-
workers are already overburdened. cluding the imposition
Therefore if preschools are integrated of national exams such
with primary schools and anganwadi as NEET. Therefore,
centres function as day care centres the NEET-UG scandal,
for infants, it would be a huge boon to which led to the pe-

26 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2024