Page 28 - EW July 2024

Education News

marks. It is pertinent to note that careers in engineering and medicine.
students from West Bengal, which This announcement has been greeted
hosts 34 medical colleges, have with much jubilation statewide.
always excelled in medical entrance Therefore, her appeal for reversion
exams. In a state where unemploy- to state conducted medical entrance
ment is rife — a major problem tests has received the support of
inherited by Banerjee who routed the Kolkata’s influential bhadralok
Left Front in the historic state legis- (cultured middle class) which values
lative election of 2011 — the despera- higher education.
tion of school-leavers to succeed in Occurances of major disasters
exams such as NEET, which provides in BJP-ruled states — bridge col-
entry into employment with an aver- lapses in Bihar and roof collapses
age salary of Rs.50,000-60,000 per in Delhi and Rajkot airports, cracks
month, is intense. Unsurprisingly, in Rs.777 crore Pragati Maidan tun-
150,000-200,000 school-leavers nel inaugurated by Prime Minister
from Bengal write NEET-UG exam Modi in June 2022, and the June
every year. 17 train accident in which a goods
owever, with centrally con- train rammed into the Kanchan-
Hducted NEET-UG having junga Express travelling to Kolkata
transformed into the sole medical killing ten and injuring 25 — have
entrance exam since 2017, students generated considerable scepticism
of Bengali-medium schools have about the tall promises and project
been at a disadvantage in terms of management capabilities of the BJP claims to have legislated several af-
English fluency and differences of government at the Centre. According firmative action laws to reduce social
syllabus. The test prep fees demand- to the state commentariat, the BJP’s iniquities and provide scholarships to
ed by coaching schools of Rs.2-3 struggle to establish a stronger pres- Dalit students. However, the spate of
lakh per year is exorbitant for most ence in Bengal, a state where leader- atrocities against Dalits indicates that
Bengali medium school students ship plays a crucial role in shaping legal and policy measures are insuf-
who tend to be from underprivileged voter behaviour, has suffered a ficient to eradicate caste prejudices
backgrounds. severe setback. deeply embedded in social practices
Therefore in January, the TMC Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) and mindsets.
government introduced Yogyashree, On August 9 (2023), unprovoked
a comprehensive social welfare TAMIL NADU violence against a Dalit student and
scheme in which 50 test prep centres his sister by classmates from an in-
across the state started providing Persistent casteism termediate dominant caste in Nangu-
free NEET-UG and IIT-Mains train- neri, Tirunelveli district, highlighted
ing for scheduled caste and sched- espite tamil nadu having been the persistence of caste violence at the
uled tribe students. This initiative ruled by anti-upper caste po- grassroots level. This incident spurred
has proved a great success. In its first Dlitical parties for almost half a new calls for more comprehensive
year of launch, 75 Yogyasree trained century, caste-based atrocities against education reforms, and societal inter-
students cracked JEE (Main) — of Dalits — the lowest caste in the iniq- vention to uproot casteism in Tamil
whom 25 passed JEE (Advanced) uitous Hindu varna system — have society.
bagging 13 seats, 432 cleared WB- been on the rise in the state, particu- Chennai-based educationists and
JEE, and 110 cleared NEET-UG. larly in primary-secondary schools. social reform activists are unanimous
Enthused by the success of the Yo- This paradox highlights the complex that caste consciousness and bigotry
gyashree experiment and TMC bag- and deep-rooted caste prejudice in the need to be addressed and uprooted
ging 29 of the state’s 42 seats in the state, despite efforts of successive ad- in K-12 education to eradicate caste
Lok Sabha in the recently concluded ministrations to eradicate it. discrimination in society more effec-
General Election 2024, on June 11 The ruling DMK party founded tively. They argue for more content
the TMC government broadened by C.N. Annadurai and later led by highlighting injustices of the caste sys-
the scope of the scheme to include M. Karunanidhi, and currently his tem in school curricula. At a seminar
students from religious minori- son M.K. Stalin has been consistently organised by the State Platform for
ties, and OBC categories to enable campaigning against religious ortho- Common School System-Tamil Nadu
more students from underprivileged doxy, and promoting rationalism, so- (SPCSS-TN) on May 27, a resolution
households opportunity to pursue cial justice, and even atheism. DMK was passed to include lessons on pro-

28 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2024