Page 22 - Education World November 2022

Education News

unemployed and unemployable graduates churned out THEY SAID IT
by poor quality state universities are willing to pay huge
amounts to land well-paid government school teacher
jobs which also offer secure of tenure with no account- “We aim to ensure that children of poor
ability for children’s learning outcomes. parents become doctors and engineers even
Prior to the enactment of the Right of Children to Free if they are not educated in English (medium).
& Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, to be eligible We want to ensure that no one is left behind
for employment in government schools, an undergradu- due to the lack of knowledge of the English
ate college degree and a B.Ed were sufficient qualifi- language. e New Education Policy of the
cations. However, with the country’s 17,503 teacher
training colleges recklessly churning out poorly trained Centre will pull the country out from this
graduates, the RTE Act (s.23 (1)) mandated the Cen- slave mentality surrounding the English
tral and/or state governments to conduct an additional language.”
Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), clearance of which became Prime minister Narendra Modi at the launch of 5G
a condition precedent of eligibility to teach in govern- telecom services in Ahmedabad (October 17)
ment schools.
onsequently since 2010, all state governments have “English has been the language of power,
Cbeen conducting TETs in their jurisdiction. But at the frontiers of knowledge and access
unfortunately, in most states the TET exams have been to privilege. e vernacular had become
mired in widespread allegations of test paper leakages, increasingly confined to identity, culture,
corruption, tampered merit lists and appointment irregu- and a marker of second-class status… e
larities (see West Bengal news, p.18) challenge of Hindi is that inhabiting the
M a y a M e n on , founder-director of The Teacher world of Hindi is seen as closing off access
Foundation, a Bengaluru-based teacher development to the frontiers of knowledge, not just in
organisation, says that although the Karnataka state gov-
ernment has a good record science but in civic knowledge, like higher
of conducting the Teacher echelons of law. It is also treated as a marker
Eligibility Test (TET) for of parochialism and inferior status.”
graduates aspiring to teach Pratap Bhanu Mehta, public intellectual on the status
in the state’s 49,679 gov- of Hindi and vernacular languages (Indian Express,
ernment schools, there are October 22)
too many loopholes in the
recruitment process. “It’s “Fear has dissipated in Iran and regimes
shocking that it took eight like the Islamic Republic… survive based on
years for the government to fear. It is due to a relentless battle by Iranian
arrest ‘illegally appointed’ Maya Menon women not to allow this regime to dictate
teachers. These high school their lives. People no longer believe that this
teachers although unquali- regime is reformable.”
fied went through the motions of teaching innocent, Abbas Milani, Director, Hamid & Christina Moghadam
eager-to-learn children for eight long years. Little wonder Program in Iranian Studies, Stanford University on the
that several studies report that more than half of class anti-hijab protests in Iran (CNN, November 1)
VII children in government schools can’t read class III
texts. If we want our next generation to lead this coun- “If I had a dollar for every time someone
try to prosperity, it’s imperative to cleanse the augean asked me if Trump is coming back on this
stables of the education ministry,” says Menon. platform, Twitter would be minting money!
With the BJP and Congress party in full campaign Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-
mode in the run-up to the legislative assembly polls platformed for violating Twitter rules back
scheduled for next summer, more skeletons are likely
to tumble out of cupboards in government ministries. on platform until we have a clear process for
Because of massive corruption scandals sweeping the doing so, which will take at least a few more
state, the chances of the BJP returning to power are weeks.”
waning. Yet educationists in this hitherto well-governed Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner and CEO on whether
state despair that corruption in education is too deeply former US president Donald Trump’s twitter account
entrenched for any government to root out. will be unblocked (November 2, Twitter)
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)

22 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022