Page 26 - EducationWorld December 2022
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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)

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