Page 18 - EW FEB 2022

Education News

to the uniform prescribed by their re- government which was re-elected for a
spective College Development Com- third term in May 2021 — is exhibit-
mittees (CDCs), and in the event of ing a curious reluctance to reopen its
no rules being prescribed by CDCs, schools after an epic 82-week lock-
students have been directed to “dress down prompted by the Covid-19 pan-
in a manner so as not to disrupt demic.
social order and ensure equality and Although the state registered a
unity are protected”. Meanwhile the low positivity rate of 9.02 percent on
six protesting students have filed a January 27, down from its peak of
petition in the Karnataka high court 29.5 percent on January 16, schools
praying for an order to direct the in Bengal have remained shut since
college not to “interfere with their March 16, 2020. While colleges, uni-
fundamental right to practise their versities and senior schools (classes
religion”. IX-XII) have been allowed to open
According to Brijesh Kalappa, a sporadically in the new year, children
Supreme Court advocate and spokes- in primary and middle school have
person of the Congress party, the hardly had any schooling during the
girl students’ right to wear the hijab past two years.
is protected under Article 19 (right Responding to this pressing de-
to freedom of speech & expression) mand for opening of campuses, on
and Article 15 (right to freedom of January 31, the state government an-
religion) of the Constitution of India. nounced that schools (class V-XII),
“Legally, these girls can wear the colleges and universities in the state titioners say is causing irreparable
hijab as long as they are also wearing would be permitted to reopen on Feb- learning loss and creating a mental
the uniform. However, I believe the ruary 3. However, children in classes health pandemic among children.”
entire hijab controversy is politically V-VII will resume schooling under the eanwhile, Learning Together
motivated with both the SDPI and ‘Paray Shikshalaya’ initiative, a com- Mreport prepared by Shiksha
BJP trying to polarise and divide stu- munity-based schooling programme Alochana (estb.2016), a collective of
dents along religious lines,” he says. under which children will be taught primary teachers and educationists,
Even as the Karnataka high court under blue skies in open spaces from indicates alarming learning loss in pri-
is all set to hear the girl students’ February 7. mary education. Conducted last Sep-
petition in mid-February, the BJP’s The TMC government’s cautious tember by highly respected academics
top leadership in Karnataka, which approach to allow school manage- Dr. Sukanta Chaudhuri, professor
is leading the party’s thrust into pen- ments to resume normative schooling emeritus, Jadavpur University and
insular (south) India, is reportedly has received lukewarm welcome. With Achin Chakraborty, professor of
expressing quiet satisfaction. Majori- schools having restarted across the economics and director of the Insti-
tarian communalism has spread and country and worldover, parents, stu- tute of Development Studies, Kolkata,
infected the state’s hitherto secular dents, teachers’ organisations and stu- the study tested learning outcomes of
tradition which could translate into dents’ unions are beginning to speak 7,204 primary school (classes I-V) stu-
big electoral gains for the party in the up for resumption of normal classes. dents statewide.
next assembly election scheduled for Comments Suman Sengupta, Its conclusions have alarmed edu-
2024. If indeed SDPI has instigated a well-known newspaper columnist cationists in the state and within West
the hijab controversy, it has been and active proponent of resumption Bengal’s shrinking bhadralok (cultur-
duped into playing the BJP game. of on-campus schooling: “The Na- ally refined middle class). According
Summiya Yasmeen (Bengaluru) tional Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to the study, 28 percent of pupils in
recommends open skies learning for government primary schools in West
WEST BENGAL children in early childhood. However, Bengal have become “totally discon-
Curious reluctance the Union Budget 2022-23 lays strong nected from academic activities”, and
balanced diets have become “a distant
emphasis on digital education. De-
spite its opposition to BJP, in practice dream” for a significant proportion of
or a state that prides itself on the TMC government is following its children because of cancelled mid-day
its intellectual prowess and directives. But there are no directives meals provided by schools.
Fcultural refinement, West Ben- on how long primary school children “Given that West Bengal has the
gal (pop.91 million) — or specifically will all have online mode of learning highest enrolment in primary schools
the state’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) which all academics and medical prac- countrywide, the state government

18 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2022