Page 22 - EW September 2022

Education News

added pressure to delay justice. The This rising sentiment was
government should have kept Sattar dramatically confirmed by official
out of the cabinet to ensure an im- harassment and hounding of a highly
partial investigation. We cannot have qualified woman professor of English
teachers with low ethical values teach- literature of St. Xavier’s University,
ing our children. Only stringent action Kolkata (SXU, formerly St. Xavier’s
against all accused will be a deterrent College, conferred university status
for the future,” says Rajesh Pandya, by the University Grants Commis-
vice president of the Mumbai-based sion in 2017) which prompted her
Teachers Democratic Front (TDF, resignation. Her offence: prior to
estb.2004). signing up with SXU in 2021, she
With judicial stay orders against had posted swimsuit photographs of
recruitment and appointment of herself on a social media platform
government primary school teachers (Instagram).
stretching back to 2012, a mere 8,000 This photograph was chanced
teachers have been appointed in Ma- upon by a first-year student of the
harashtra’s government primaries university in October last year whose
during the past decade. As a result, outraged parent complained to
there are 40,000 teacher vacancies in SXU’s founding vice chancellor Fr.
the state’s rural (zilla parishad) gov- (Dr.) Felix Raj, an alum of Loyola
ernment schools. Meanwhile, despite College, Chennai, St. Joseph’s Col-
the RTE Act guidelines stipulating a lege, Trichy, awarded an economics
teacher-pupil ratio of 1:30, govern- in Ph D by Rabindra Bharati Univer- information report) at a local police
ment schools have a teacher-pupil sity, Santiniketan and formerly prin- station against the SXU management
ratio of 1:50. Moreover according to cipal of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata under sections 354 (c) (voyeurism)
ASER 2019, only 40 percent of class (2009-17). and 509 (outraging modesty of a
III children can read and comprehend According to this woman profes- woman) of the Indian Penal Code
class I textbooks. sor awarded Ph Ds by two European 1860.
Ultimately, price of corruption is universities, Dr. Raj and registrar nsurprisingly, there was a mas-
paid by the weak and vulnerable at Asish Mitra intimidated, bullied and Usive public uproar in Kolkata
the base of the country’s iniquitous made “sexually-coloured remarks” immediately after the news was
socio-economic pyramid. In this case, during a kangaroo court trial held published in the online portal Wire
children. on October 7 last year. “I was told (August 10). SXU students staged
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) that my failure to voluntarily resign campus protests on August 10 fol-
would be punished by the lodging of lowed by several student-run and
WEST BENGAL a criminal case against me for put- women organisations holding pro-
Thrown away pearl ting up objectionable photographs, tests before SXU gates.
Support for the persecuted profes-
and I was also forced to submit a
letter of apology for inappropriate sor has also poured in from St. Xavi-
lthough there’s no denying conduct, hurting the image of the er’s College alumni, gender activists
that Christian missionaries institution,” wrote the professor in a and leading lights of Kolkata includ-
Ahave made a great contribu- detailed account of her persecution ing mental health activist Ratnaboli
tion to the growth and dissemination by the SXU management published Ray, psychologist Payoshni Mitra,
of English-medium school and high- by Indian Express (August 20). former president and one-time SFI
er education, there’s rising aware- Subsequently on second thought leader Anisha Pal. In a post, Ray
ness within the country’s influential after tendering her resignation on wrote “that the SXU management
middle class that priest-educators, October 25, in February, 2022 the needs to extend its periphery.”
i.e, men and women of the cloth professor wrote a letter to the SXU Since then, an online petition
also discharging academic roles and management seeking reinstatement addressed to West Bengal educa-
duties, are becoming obsolete.Bound and a formal apology. In response, tion minister Bratya Basu, demand-
by strict laws of celibacy, Jesuit (and the university sent her a legal notice ing disciplinary action against vice
Church of Rome) academics plagued demanding Rs.99 crore for “causing chancellor Dr. Raj has been signed
by a rash of paedophilia scandals irreparable damage” to the univer- by 21,700 alumni and citizens.
worldwide, are out of step with 21st sity. On receiving the notice, the According to the petition, the SXU
century zeitgeist. former professor filed a FIR (first management has set a “dangerous

22 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2022