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Education News
state,” Banerjee’s inabil- THEY SAID IT
ity to make headway in
solving the state’s teach- “So, is Covid-19 over? No, it’s most certainly
er recruitment issue will not over. I know that’s not the message
severely impact efforts to
address the learning loss you want to hear, and it’s definitely not the
of 23 million children message I want to deliver. is virus has
enrolled in government surprised us at every turn – a storm that has
schools — especially torn through communities... and we still can’t
in early childhood and predict its path, or its intensity.”
primary education — in Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of
West Bengal. Prof. Pabitra Sarkar World Health Organisation addressing the World
With Banerjee’s con- Health Assembly (United Nations News, May 22)
spicuous failure to fulfil
her promise of initiating p orib orton (“positive change”) “Online education is the new reality.
in the state’s languishing education system ruined by Teaching fraternity must build new academic
steady infiltration of the academy by half-baked Marxist
intellectuals, the chief minister is fast losing the support dynamics and come forward for developing
b
of Kolkata’s influential hadralok (cultured middle class). quality e-learning content, developing SOPs
It could signal beginning of the end. to ensure online learning is not limited to
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) exploitative market forces, and protecting
against data imperialism.”
ODISHA Dharmendra Pradhan, Union education minister (Twitter,
Concurrent list confusion May 28)
A “Let us assume that indeed the mosque
CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE ODISHA GOVERNMENT
was built on the site of a destroyed temple;
and Delhi-based University Grants Commis-
does that mean we should open a gaping
sion (UGC) has prompted the Supreme Court to
issue a stay order against the state government and Odi- wound now, provoking civil strife today to
sha Public Service Commission from proceeding with avenge the past? Is there no case for letting
recruitment of professors and lecturers for the state’s 11 old wounds that have long healed stay
universities and affiliated colleges. undisturbed? To destroy the mosque and
This confrontation dates back to last year when replace it with a temple would not right an
under the Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020, old wrong but perpetrate a new one.”
the state’s BJD government vested the power to select Shashi Tharoor, member of Parliament, on the
and appoint faculty for state universities in the Odisha Gyanvapi mosque dispute (The Week, May 29)
Public Service Commission (OPSC). However, according
to UGC — the apex level organisation (estb.1956) that
governs all higher education institutions countrywide “ere is a need for a new legal framework
— the directive is in violation of its regulations which for NEP to align it with the forward looking
stipulate that appointment of all vice chancellors and provisions of the NEP 2020. Otherwise, the
faculty in the country’s 1,043 universities and affiliated policy will not be able to cross the hurdles
colleges must be made after UGC approval. created by existing legal provisions and age-
Taking exception to the BJD government short- old practices,”
circuiting this well-established recruitment process, Manish Sisodia, education minister, Delhi state, on the
A j it K u m a r M oh a n ty , a former JNU professor, filed National Education Policy 2020 (Financial Express,
a writ petition challenging the constitutional validity of June 3)
the Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and
prayed for annulment of all appointments made under
it. Meanwhile, OPSC had selected and issued appoint- "e problem in India is that often when you
ment letters to 639 lecturers. In addition, on May 24, think an issue is resolved, it isn't. It crops up
another 186 candidates selected for assistant professor in one form or other."
posts were directed to get their documents verified. Aroon Purie, editor, on the Gyanvapi mosque
However, admitting Prof. Mohanty’s petition on May controversy (India Today, June 13)
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