Page 26 - EducationWorld December 2022

Education News

der different names is good advertising. But it side-steps THEY SAID IT
strong concerns about lost jobs among the poor and work-
ing class in the state. The education crisis is very grave and “Excellence in higher education is impaired by
this state has become an exporter of skilled and unskilled ineffective leadership; unsatisfactory talent
migrant workers. Policy intervention is needed to provide sourcing of faculty and students; and poor
decent jobs to the rising number of unemployed, start- governance… Governance is a casualty in
ing with raising the public sector employment to earlier
levels,” says Soham Bhattacharya, a correspondent of most HEIs, as they ignore attributes such as
Student Struggle, a journal of the Students Federation participation, responsiveness, transparency,
of India. consensus, and inclusivity. Consequently,
Once the epicenter of the Bengal Renaissance of the many top managements function with a cote-
late 18th to early 20th century which catalysed radical rie of incompetent ‘yes’ men/women around
transformation of Indian society and planted the seeds them, side-lining competent, independent
of India’s anti-colonialist, nationalist freedom move- people in the system.”
ment, following 34 years of uninterrupted communist rule S Jayasankaran, VC of Kanchi University and Suresh
(1977-2011) and TMC drift (2011 onwards), West Bengal’s Mony, HEIs advisor, on what ails Indian higher
education system has been reduced to sorry condition. education (The Hindu Business Line, November 7)
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)
“Social change is the need of the hour. The
TAMIL NADU NEP determines the country’s future. Indians
Early learning caveat had fought against the systems, policies and
administration introduced by the Mughals and
the British. The NEP will be introduced after
hat is the most appropriate age for infants
to be inducted into the formal education 75 years for a self-reliant society replacing
Wsystem? A 13-member committee constituted Macaulayism.”
to formulate a state education policy (SEP), chaired by B.C. Nagesh, minister for school education in the
Justice D. Murugesan, a former chief justice of Delhi Karnataka state government (Deccan Herald,
high court, is reportedly ready to prescribe a common November 30)
age for admission into pre-primary learning.
Despite the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory “Foreign laboratories did not have the ad-
Education (RTE) Act, 2009, prescribing the entry age equate control measures in place for ensuring
for class I as six, the age for admission into class I of proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk man-
Tamil Nadu’s 39,300 government and government- agement, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at
aided schools affiliated with the Tamil Nadu Board the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
of Secondary Education (TNBSE) and nearly 5,000 Andrew Huff, epidemiologist, in his book The Truth
matriculation board schools statewide, is five years. about Wuhan where he claims that Covid was a man-
With the ruling DMK made virus (Business Standard, December 6)
government opposed to
the National Education “Today, companies of the Adani Group have
Policy (NEP) 2020 for cobbled up a valuation of Rs.19.21 lakh crore,
various reasons including as of November 18, surpassing that of RIL by
the compulsory learning Rs.1.84 lakh crore.”
of Hindi under the three Anand Adhikari on Gautam Adani, chairman of
languages formula and the Adani Group, voted the India’s most valuable
common entrance exams conglomerate (Business Today, December 11)
such as NEET, Tamil
Nadu’s SEP is likely to “Vinay Kumar Pathak, 53, the vice chancellor
prescribe a lower entry D. Girija Devi of the Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University
level age than NEP which in Kanpur, whose misdeeds are now under the
mandates early childhood care and education (ECCE) at
three years under the revised 5+3+3+4 system. scanner of the UP police, held the chair in dif-
The Murugesan Committee is likely to recommend ferent universities for almost 13 years.”
merger of the state’s 48,000 anganwadis — nutrition Prashant Srivastava in a feature story titled ‘Fall of a
centres for newborns and lactating mothers established vice chancellor’ (India Today, December 12)

26 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2022