Page 20 - EW FEB 2022

Education News

should accord highest pri- THEY SAID IT
ority to primary education.
Instead, while senior school “This is a country where in a range of exams
and higher education in- marks are calculated to the seventh decimal
stitutions have resumed
in-person classes, primary place to decide who will get selected. Every
children are still locked single place where we have an exam, from
out of school. An over cau- IIT to CLAT, is pressure ridden because of the
tious approach towards re- law of numbers. So the idea that this exam
opening primary schools, will be a relief is strange.”
despite all stakeholders Pratap Bhanu Mehta, public intellectual, on Delhi
being in favour, reveals a Achin Chakraborty University’s decision to conduct admissions using
confused if not indifferent either a Central Universities Entrance Exam or its own
mindset within the TMC government,” says Dr. Achin entrance exam (Indian Express, January 8)
Chakraborty, director of the Institute of Development
Studies, Kolkata (estb.2002). “It's been a strength of India that everyone
Surprisingly, the issue of restarting on-campus, in-
person classes for youngest children has become a rare is free to wear what they want. If the hijab
common cause of normally bitterly opposed students is disallowed, what about the Sikh turban?
unions. The CPM-affiliated Students Federation of India The Hindu's forehead mark? The Christian's
(SFI), BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad crucifix? This college is going down a
(ABVP) and the Congress-affiliated Chhatra Parishad slippery slope. Let the girls in. Let them
— are all in favour of restarting on-campus classes for study. Let them decide.”
primary children. “All surveys indicate that the vast ma- Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, on the controversy of
jority of children in Bengal have not, and cannot access six hijab (headscarves)-wearing girl students being
online education. Every survey indicates that Bengal is a prevented from attending classes in a government
laggard in digital education. Schools for all classes must pre-university college in Karnataka (Twitter, February
open right now,” says Srijan Bhattacharyya, state sec- 4)
retary of SFI.
But chief minister Mamata Banerjee elected to office “The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
for an unprecedented third term, seems to have developed was launched last year with huge fanfare.
national ambitions. Voteless children can wait. It advocated that 6 percent of GDP should
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) be allocated to the education sector. But,
this year’s budget comes down to less than
TAMIL NADU 2 per cent. The education budget may have
Exam cancellation demand crossed a landmark of 1 lakh crore but it has
been decreasing as a percentage of total

he tamil nadu government school teachers As- expenditure.”
sociation (TNGSTA) has submitted a petition to Anil Swaroop, former Union school education
Tchief minister M.K. Stalin to cancel the state’s secretary, on the Budget 2022-23 allocation for
unique class XI board exams. This exam is scheduled to education sector (The Indian Express, February 6)
be written in March-April by 1 million students enrolled
in 39,300 government and government-aided schools "NEET is discriminatory and against
affiliated with the Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary social justice... It attempts to marginalise
Examinations (TNBSE). According to TNGSTA, because students from low-income families in the
of the prolonged pandemic lockdown — 20 months — guise of merit. As a result, we oppose the
schools, teachers were unable to complete the syllabus, examination and demand an exemption. The
and the majority of students were unable to attend NEET Exemption Bill not only defends the
classes. Though schools reopened for class X-XII stu-
dents on September 1 last year, class XI students attend right to education and social rights but also
on alternate days to maintain social distancing. More- upholds Tamil Nadu's rights."
over in late December, all schools were ordered to lock M.K. Stalin, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, presenting
down again to check spread of the new Omicron variant the NEET Exemption Bill in the legislative assembly
of the Coronavirus and reopened on February 1. (The Hindu, February 9)

20 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2022