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prayer (az an) have been outlawed. cruited was Ankita, daughter of school
Acclaimed Kannada writer and education minister Paresh Chandra
Dalit activist, e v a n u ru M a h a de - Adhikari, whose name had been sub-
D
v a , says saffronisation of textbooks stituted for Babita Sarkar, who had
is not “novel for BJP”. “Ever since cleared the test and was ranked #20.
Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi was Union Incidentally, Paresh Adhikari joined
education minister, this has been the ruling TMC in 2018 following
the party’s modus operandi. History which Ankita was appointed political
and education distortion is their first science teacher at Indira Girls School,
mission.” Coochbehar on November 24, 2018.
While the BJP might have suc- On May 18, seven orders were
ceeded with its saffronising agenda passed by the division bench of the
in north India, it is confronted with high court directing the Central Bu-
stiff opposition in peninsular India reau of Investigation (CBI) to continue
where Dravidian history and culture its enquiry into the alleged irregulari-
is deeply rooted and there’s a long ties in TET 2016 and appointment of
tradition of social reform, Dalit activ- teachers.
ism and opposition to Aryan history. On May 21, CBI filed an FIR (first
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) information report) against five mem-
bers of an advisory panel of the School
WEST BENGAL Service Commission (SSC) under
Rising s.120-B (criminal conspiracy), s.465 TMC government ministers. It has
(forgery), s.417 (cheating) and s.468
disenchantment (forgery for purpose of cheating) of opened a can of worms and needs
thorough probe,” says S u b h e n du
the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Recruitment of teachers for gov-
A dh ik a ry , leader of the BJP in the
IFTEEN LONG-PENDING WRIT peti- ernment schools is an emotive issue legislative assembly.
tions dating back to 2016 chal- in West Bengal because teachers are Unsurprisingly, academics in Ben-
Flenging the process of recruit- relatively well-remunerated in a state gal are becoming increasingly disen-
ing 10,000 teachers for West Bengal’s where unemployment is pervasive, chanted with the TMC government
92,000 government schools are ex- and small and medium scale industry and chief minister Mamata Banerjee,
periencing some traction. On April salary scales are low. During 34 years serving her third successive term in
7, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of of uninterrupted rule of the CPM office. There is deep disappointment
the Calcutta high court ordered a CBI (Communist Party of India-Marxist)- within academia that recruitment of
enquiry into the allegedly fraudulent led Left Front government (1977- teachers for government schools has
teacher recruitment process. 2011) when labour militancy and vio- been stymied since 2012 because of
This order was challenged by the lence was officially encouraged, there a series of scams in TET and pend-
state’s Trinamool Congress govern- was a continuous flight of capital and ing court cases which have torpedoed
ment before a division bench. In light industry from the state. As a result, employment prospects of thousands
of the serious allegations of irregu- overt and disguised unemployment of youth aspiring to become govern-
larities and fraud in the recruitment is rife and government — including ment school teachers. Moreover with
process, the division bench appointed teaching jobs are highly prized. teacher recruitment at a standstill, the
a four-member committee chaired by In support of unemployed teachers, average teacher-pupil ratio in govern-
Justice (Retd.) R.K. Bag to report if members of the All India Democratic ment schools has risen to 1:59, against
a CBI investigation is warranted. On Youth Organisation (AIDYO) and All 1:35 prescribed by the RTE Act, 2009,
May 13, the Bag Committee submitted India Democratic Students’ Organ- exacerbating poor learning outcomes
its report confirming lack of transpar- isation (AIDSO) have been staging of government schools.
ency in the conduct of TET (Teacher continuous protests in College Street, According to P rof . P a b itra
Eligibility Test) 2016. a prime location in central Kolkata. S a rk a r, a former vice chancellor of
According to advocate A ru n a v a Opposition parties have also seized Rabindra Bharati University and for-
B a n dy op a dh y a y , a member of the opportunity to excoriate the TMC mer vice chairman of the West Ben-
the Bag Committee, “among the 381 government. “The recruitment pro- gal State Council of Higher Education,
teachers recruited, the names of 221 cess has been tainted and sullied by “given the enormity of learning loss
had never figured in the list of those gross nepotism, favouritism and cor- during the world’s most prolonged
who passed TET”. Among those re- ruption with massive involvement of pandemic lockdown of 99 weeks in the

20 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2022