Page 44 - EW July 2024

Cover Story

private preschools. Moreover, govern-
ment and private publishers are not
printing and publishing aligned text-
books. These lacunae have to be set
right and a strong programme to clus-
ter train preschool teachers to imple-
ment the excellent FLN and NIPUN
curriculums has to be urgently initi-
ated,” says Dr. Swati Popat Vats,
founder-director of the Early Child-
hood Association (ECA, estb. 2010)
which has a membership of 40,000
private pre-primaries. Dr. Popat Vats
is also President of the Podar Jumbo
Kids network of 490 preschools coun-
trywide with an aggregate enrolment
of 45,000 youngest children, where
these initiatives are being implement-
ed rigorously. Swati Popat Vats: FLN and NIPUN strong endorsement
H OWEVER WITHIN TWO cloud over Pradhan’s capability and insolence of office, Pradhan’s bleats

weeks of his being re-
credibility to implement the root-
about accepting “moral responsibil-
appointed as education
leak are unlikely to generate much
2020. This is not helped by the min-
minister in the Modi 3.0 and-branch reforms proposed by NEP ity” for the NEET-UG exam paper
government, Pradhan has become ister’s adamant refusal to ‘award’ any sympathy. In the first session of the
neck deep embroiled in the NEET-UG interviews to the media, except to neo- new Parliament, there were strident
(National Eligibility-cum-Entrance phyte mainstream media journalists calls for his resignation from a rein-
Test-Undergrad) scandal which has who are provided anodyne answers to forced and reinvigorated opposition.
endangered the future of 2.4 million superficial questions. Particularly since in the aftermath of
school-leavers who wrote the exam, of Specifically, although Education- the NEET-UG debacle, NEET-PG and
whom the top 56,000 will qualify for World has published three lead sto- CSIR/UGC-NET exams have been
admission into 389 government medi- ries featuring him on the cover, he cancelled for “logistical reasons”, in-
cal colleges (out of a total 706 coun- has stubbornly refused to respond dicating erosion of confidence in NTA
trywide) which provide undergradu- to important questions demanding and institutional meltdown. In the cir-
ate (MBBS) education at throwaway accountability for progress of policy cumstances the possibility of Pradhan
prices. After initially denying it, the initiatives and directives emanat- having to return to the pavilion before
education ministry has now confessed ing from Shastri Bhavan, Delhi. This opening his second innings account
that question papers of the three-hour despite EducationWorld (estb.1999) can’t be ruled out.
exam written in 4,750 centres coun- having established a transnational Meanwhile if four years after it was
trywide were prematurely leaked in reputation as Asia’s #1 education officially approved, NEP 2020 imple-
Patna and several other centres across news magazine and as a sui generis mentation is moving at snail pace, the
the country. Moreover 1,563 students human development journalism en- prime cause is heavy involvement of
were awarded arbitrary ‘grace marks’ terprise. Even for this feature, apart government in academia that the new
on various grounds enabling several from his office acknowledging receipt policy introduced to translate the rec-
of them to score the maximum 720 or of a printed questionnaire, neither he, ommendations of the nine-member
thereabouts. his PA (personal assistant) or Tullika Dr. K. Kasturirangan Committee,
This issue of malpractice within described as OSD (officer on special mandates. To any dispassionate ana-
the National Testing Agency (NTA, duty) in the minister’s office declined lyst, it is — or should be — abundantly
estb. 2017), a subsidiary of the Union to respond to pressing requests for a clear that the dismal condition of In-
education ministry established as “a response to an innocuous question- dian education across the spectrum
premier, specialist, autonomous and naire soliciting information relating to from pe-primary to university is at-
self-sustained testing organization the education ministry’s plans during tributable to poor management of
to conduct entrance examinations the minister’s second innings. (see box government -run universities, colleges
for admission/fellowship in higher pg. 50) and schools and preschools (angan-
educational institutions,” has cast a In the circumstances, given this wadis). Yet instead of recommending

44 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2024