Page 20 - EW February 2026

Education News

percent the previous year. For a state educationists warn that restarting groups, and media questioning its
which has long prided itself for 100 under-provided schools requires impartiality and alignment with the
percent enrolment and high reten- deeper structural issues to be ad- BJP — launched the Special Inten-
tion, these dropout rates have raised dressed. Improved access has to be sive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls
alarm within academic and policy supported by enabling infrastruc- on November 1. Consequently, thou-
circles. ture, teacher adequacy, curriculum sands of government school teachers
It was in this context that in Au- quality and the thorny issue of were deployed for door-to-door verifi-
gust last year, school education min- English-medium education. With the cation, hearings, digitisation, and data
ister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi neighbouring states of Andhra and uploads without consultation with
publicly stated that the state govern- Telangana having decreed English exam boards and schools. By forcibly
ment will reopen schools that had as the medium of instruction in deploying tens of thousands of teach-
been closed down due to poor enrol- primary-secondary education, the ers to serve as booth level officers
ment, wherever there is renewed DMK’s Tamil pride education policy (BLOs) for months, the SIR exercise
demand or evidence of school-age and electoral rhetoric is rapidly los- has exposed a brutal truth: in contem-
children in the locality. “Government ing sheen. porary Bengal, children’s education is
schools are not businesses that we Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) dispensable.
close down because numbers are With the Madhyamik exam (class
low,” the minister said at a meeting WEST BENGAL X board exam) set to begin on Feb-
with headmasters. “Our responsibil- ruary 2, uncertainty persists over the
ity is to ensure access. If children are Dismal picture availability of teachers and education
there, schools must be there.” department officials engaged in the
ince then the education min- s the mamata banerjee-led SIR exercise. According to an Election
Sistry has initiated surveys and ruling Trinamool Congress Commission notice published on De-
district-level reviews, using digital A(TMC) party and the chief cember 12, BLOs will remain engaged
enrolment registers and panchayat opposition BJP lock horns in a pre- in various SIR duties until February
records to identify out-of-school election slugfest ahead of the May- 14, the day of final publication of the
children. Officials are also working June 2026 legislative assembly polls electoral roll.
with school heads to conduct door- in West Bengal, the public education This year’s Madhyamik exami-
to-door outreach surveys in some vil- system of the state is being quietly nation — one of the largest public
lages to persuade parents to re-enrol gutted. examinations in the country — will
children in local government schools. At a time when schools in Bengal test 971,340 candidates (969,425 last
Reopening, they say, will be selective year) at 2,682 centres
and need-based, focusing on areas and requires an esti-
where students are obliged to com- mated 100,000 teachers
mute long distances to get to school. as invigilators, officers-
Review of the decision to close in-charge (OICs), centre
tiny schools is connected with fiscal secretaries and venue
constraints and Centre-state dynam- supervisors. But many of
ics. The state’s DMK government these personnel are cur-
has repeatedly protested the BJP-led rently serving as BLOs,
Central government’s foot dragging Electoral Registration
over the release of Central funds Officers (EROs) or As-
under the Samagra Shiksha scheme sistant EROs conducting
(primary-secondary school develop- SIR.
ment) contending that financial con- Teachers on SIR duty With over 80,000
straints have affected infrastructure BLOs — mostly govern-
maintenance, teacher appointments are experiencing severe disruption ment school teachers — engaged in
and student support services. Re- due to an acute teacher shortage re- SIR, West Bengal Board of Second-
opening closed schools will require sulting from the multi-crore TET ary Education (WBBSE) president
additional resources for staff, midday (Teacher Eligibility Test) scam which Ramanuj Ganguly has repeatedly
meals and learning materials, mak- froze recruitment in Bengal’s 84,000 written to the Chief Electoral Officer
ing sustained funding a critical factor public schools, the Election Commis- and district magistrates across Bengal,
for success of the initiative. sion — which since 2014 has faced seeking exemption of teachers from
While DMK cadres welcome this intensified scrutiny and allegations SIR duties during the class X exams
policy reversal in an election year, from opposition parties, civil society (February 2-12), stressing that OICs

20 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2026