Page 18 - EW July 2022

Education News

for the state’s 92,000 government cancies. This has dashed
schools. Justice Gangopadhyay also the dreams of thousands
ordered a CBI investigation into the of aspiring teachers
TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) 2014 in a state where there
conducted by the West Bengal Board are few employment
of Primary Education (WBBPE) options. Moreover, the
on October 11, 2015. Aggrieved by chances of children in
these orders, the TMC government government schools ever
appealed to a division bench which recovering their learning
peremptorily rejected the govern- loss are slipping away,”
ment’s appeal on June 16. says Swapan Mondal,
Significantly, a list of 42,949 a teacher at the Narikel-
selected teachers was a revised merit danga High School,
list published in 2017 for TET 2014. Kolkata, turned political
Justice Gangopadhyay observed TET 2014 protest: continuing uncertainty activist.
that even in the revised merit list, Right until the 1970s,
269 of the selected candidates were libraries, laboratories and lavatories. West Bengal was among the coun-
awarded an additional mark each. With teacher recruitment at a stand- try’s most educationally advanced
WBBPE’s explanation that this still, the average teacher-pupil ratio states. However after the CPM (Com-
additional mark awarded to 269 in government schools has risen to munist Party of India-Marxist)-led
candidates was because of an error 1:59 against the 1:35 prescribed by Left Front government repeatedly
in the question paper, didn’t cut ice the RTE Act, 2009. As a result, learn- won the legislative assembly elec-
with the judge who enquired why ing outcomes are plunging. tions and (mis)-ruled the state for 34
the other 2.3 million candidates who Unsurprisingly, the TMC govern- years (1977-2011), faux CPM intel-
wrote the very same exam were not ment’s pathetic inability to sort out lectuals and party cadres massively
also awarded the additional mark. the state’s teacher recruitment mess infiltrated education institutions and
herefore, Justice Gangopadhyay and involvement of party cadres totally ruined their traditions and
Trejected the entire revised merit in this scandal have made public learning outcomes. And all of chief
list of 2017 and ordered “immedi- protests a daily affair. On June 22, minister Mamata Banerjee’s min-
ate cancellation of the appointment hundreds of TET 2014 candidates isters and men haven’t been able to
of 269 candidates, stop payment of who are yet to receive appointment repair the damage.
their salaries, and ensure they are letters, staged a protest by blocking Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)
barred from entering the respective an important crossroad of South
schools to which they were appointed Kolkata, demanding immediate KARNATAKA
henceforth”. In his order, the judge recruitment. Chief minister Mamata
also ordered immediate removal of Banerjee’s lame reply (June 20): “We Emerging election
WBBPE president Manik Bhat- have given jobs to nearly 100,000
tacharya and assigned his official people in government schools. issue
responsibilities to the board’s secre- Mistakes have occurred in 50-100
tary Ratna Chakraborty Bagchi. cases,” has fanned the flames of the arnataka’s school textbooks
On June 20, Chakraborty cancelled 42,949 aspirant teachers who cleared revision row shows no sign of
the appointment of all teachers TET 2014 and are awaiting appoint- Kdying down and could become
recruited and appointed under TET ment letters. a major issue in the state legislative
2014. Meanwhile widespread awareness assembly elections scheduled for next
Academics and teachers’ unions that teachers are urgently required summer. Despite the state’s BJP gov-
in West Bengal (pop. 91 million) in the state’s 92,000 government ernment having consented to make
are aghast that the future of aspir- schools with an aggregate enrolment addenda to new textbooks already dis-
ing teachers who wrote TET 2014 is of 23 million children to make good tributed to class VI-X students for the
uncertain eight years later because the massive loss of the pandemic era academic year 2022-23 which began
of irregularities in recruitment tests when West Bengal’s public schools on May 16, several Kannada littera-
and pending court cases, even as were locked down for an unprece- teurs, religious seers, social activists
there is an aggregate vacancy of dented 91 weeks, is also fuelling pub- and opposition parties have continued
60,000 teachers in government lic outrage. “Banerjee has prioritised to press their demand for the com-
schools which are also woefully doles and freebies for voters over plete withdrawal of the new textbooks.
deficient in blackboards, classrooms, filling government school teacher va- According to critics, the new text-

18 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2022