Page 22 - EducationWorld Oct. 2022

Education News

duties relating to elections to the local the new academic year
authority or state legislatures or Par- 2022-23, with three
liament.” colleges reporting single
“It is unsurprising that teachers are digit admissions against
running a campaign demanding the 740 vacancies. More-
right to teach. Government schools, over, with the state’s
especially in rural areas don’t have BJP government being
proper infrastructure, lack finan- first off the blocks to
cial support and make-do with huge implement the National
teacher vacancies. Most rural schools Education Policy (NEP)
have only one or two teachers and no 2020 in higher education
support staff because of a government institutions, university
ban on teacher and staff recruitment. managements are con-
Therefore, teachers end up cleaning fused and apprehensive
toilets and even ringing the school Ashwath Narayan: telling admission about online admissions,
bell. If teachers are allowed to do teaching engineering programmes in
their main job, it would automatically education initiatives. Kannada etc.
K
lead to a “sense of belonging between On September 20, the state Simultaneously, ris h n a B y re
students and teachers” which is being government tabled the State Uni- G ow da , a Congress party leader,
propagated by the education minis- versities (Amendment) Bill 2022, has alleged “several irregularities
try, and learning outcomes would im- which proposes promotion of eight and scams” in the appointment of
prove,” says K h a n de ra o D h ob a l e , state government universities in vice chancellors and faculty at state
secretary, Maharashtra State Primary Bidar, Haveri, Kodagu, Chamara- universities, and rampant corrup-
Teachers’ Association. janagar, Hassan, Koppal, Mandya tion that has resulted in “deteriora-
Evidently in massively mis-gov- and Bagalkot districts. The estimated tion of higher education standards”.
erned Maharashtra which has experi- expenditure: Rs.112 crore over the Moreover Congress state president
enced three new governments in the next two years. Es h w a r K h a n dre has accused the
past three years, children’s education Moreover the BJP government’s BJP government of auctioning posts
is suffering collateral damage. populist statements of intent to of vice chancellors for Rs.5-20 crore.
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) reserve 75 percent of employment onfronted with a barrage of criti-
in government and private sector Ccism, higher education minis-
KARNATAKA industry for natives of the state and ter r. C . N . A s h w a th N a ra y a n
D
Anaemic education making Kannada the sole language admitted that 2,300 faculty positions
of administration are also being
are vacant in the state’s government
initiative interpreted as desperate measures of colleges and varsities. Vice chancel-
lors posts are also vacant in three
the besieged BJP government ready-
ing for legislative assembly elections varsities for over a year — in Gulbar-
EELING UNDER ATTACKS FROM THE early next year. ga (Kalaburagi), Karnataka Folklore
opposition Congress party Opposition Congress party lead- (Haveri) and Karnatak universities.
Rwhich has launched a highly ers and academics have been quick With Karnataka’s extant 33 uni-
effective ‘Pay CM — 40 percent ac- to highlight that Karnataka already versities and hundreds of affiliated
cepted here’ poster campaign across hosts 33 state universities beset with colleges in a shambles and beset
the state to highlight rampant cor- massive faculty shortages, rampant with funding, faculty and certifica-
ruption in the state (last November corruption in appointment of vice tion credibility problems, respected
the Karnataka State Contractors’ chancellors and faculty, obsolete cur- academics question the advisability
Association wrote directly to prime riculums and pedagogies and poor of augmenting the number of new
minister Narendra Modi complain- infrastructure. Consequently, admis- under-resourced universities dis-
ing that government officials rou- sions in government undergrad de- pensing poor quality education.
tinely extort 40 percent ‘commission’ gree colleges affiliated with state-run “The government should distrib-
on all government contracts and bills universities are plummeting. ute available resources to strengthen
payable) and also accused by several According to a report in The existing state universities instead of
private schools associations of per- H indu (September 30) 171 govern- promoting anaemic new higher edu-
vasive corruption, Karnataka’s BJP ment degree colleges affiliated with cation institutions. It should use the
government has sought to recover state universities received less than finances allocated to raise education
lost ground by announcing a slew of 100 admission applications for standards, recruit qualified faculty

22 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2022