Page 20 - EducationWorld August 2022

Education News

ter by appointing teachers of private sition paper on language
aided schools as well. education is in contempt
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) of the Supreme Court of
India. We demand im-
KARNATAKA mediate withdrawal of
Position papers row this position paper. The
state government should
refrain from impos-
HE KARNATAKA BJP government’s ing a new medium of
26 position papers on National instruction policy under
TEducation Policy (NEP) 2020, the guise of implement-
which is being rolled out nationally ing NEP 2020,” says
after being kept on hold during the D . Shashi K u m ar,
Covid-19 pandemic disruption, sub- general secretary, As-
mitted in early July to the National Shashi Kumar: immediate withdrawal demand sociated Managements
Council for Educational Research of Private Schools in
& Training (NCERT), have sparked N iranjanaradhy a V .P , fellow and Karnataka (KAMS).
outrage within the academy. programme head — Universalisation Meanwhile, responding to the
Submitted in response to the of Education at NLSUI, Bengaluru, volley of criticism against the state’s
Union education ministry’s invi- severely criticised the state govern- NEP position papers, education
tation to state governments for ment’s position papers. minister B .C. N ag e sh says they are
suggestions to finalise the new K-12 “An elaborate study conducted by “only recommendations; a final deci-
National Curriculum Framework the Karnataka Rural Development sion will be taken by NCERT”.
(NCF) being finalised by NCERT, the and Panchayat Raj University, Gadag ost academics in Karnataka,
position papers have provoked a hail has very clearly shown that children Mwhich has a long tradition of
of criticism for promoting hindutva in Yadgir district where mid-day liberal education, are of the opinion
ideology, language chauvinism, pass- meals were supplemented with egg that a discernable hindutva spin is
ing of myth as history, and under- protein recorded significant gains being given to education policies and
mining scientific temper. in weight and body mass index... initiatives by the state’s BJP gov-
Drafted by a committee of experts Therefore, the recommendation of ernment which was sworn in after
chaired by H.V. Ranganath, former the position paper completely goes engineering mass defections from
chief secretary of Karnataka, the 26 against the decision of the Karnataka opposition parties in 2019. With leg-
papers offer suggestions relating to government,” says the statement. islative assembly elections scheduled
language education, knowledge of Yet the Ranganath Committee’s for next summer, the BJP leadership
India, curriculum and pedagogy, NEP 2020 recommendation paper is working furiously to implement
science and gender education among that has angered educationists most, the party’s strategy of consolidating
other issues. Yet it has sparked aca- is on language education. It recom- the Hindu vote by ramping up anti-
demic outrage because a ‘Knowledge mends that in foundational classes minorities rhetoric. It prohibited
of India’ paper proposes introduc- (nursery-class V) the compulsory Muslim girl children from wearing
tion of indigenous ( haratiy a) medium of instruction should be the hij ab (headscarf) in classrooms,
b
pedagogies and rejection of “Western mother tongue and/or Kannada. and has rewritten history textbooks.
science”. In particular, this paper Private schools are shocked that The Ranganath Committee’s NEP
posits that the Pythagoras theorem the expert committee has raked up 2020 position papers which call for
and Newton’s law of gravity are “fake this issue settled by the Supreme rejection of Western science, promo-
news”, and should be excised from Court in 2014 after a 33-year battle tion of vegetarianism, and ancient
all school syllabuses. Another posi- in the courts. In tate of K arnatak a (Hindu) culture and languages,
S
tion paper on health and wellness & A nr. vs. A ssoc iated Management are part and parcel of this electoral
recommends discontinuation of eggs of (G overnment R ec ognised U n- strategy which has proved success-
in school children’s mid-day meals as aided English medium) Primary and ful in north Indian states, especially
“they cause lifestyle disorders”. S ec ondary S c hools & O rs. (AIR 2014 Uttar Pradesh, India’s most popu-
In a statement dated July 21, sev- SC 2094), the apex court ruled that lous (215 million) state. However,
eral medical practitioners and educa- parents have a fundamental right to peninsular India has a separate and
tionists including r. Y og ananda choose the medium of instruction of distinct Dravidian culture of harmo-
D
Re ddy , former president of Indian their children. nious co-existence with large Muslim
Medical Association, Karnataka and “The Ranganath Committee’s po- and Christian minorities. Besides,

20 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022