Page 28 - EW June 2023

Education News

there are no teachers left to teach im- in any state or region and practice a
portant subjects such as life science, business, trade or profession and one
physics, chemistry and mathematics. in which professionals and families
According to Byomkesh Das, are frequently transferred from one
Purulia district secretary of the All state to another for short duration, it
Bengal Teachers Association, Hura becomes harassment.
Girls High School in his district, Yet so great is the love of mother-
which has a student enrolment of tongue for India’s politicians that de-
600, has only seven teachers. Simi- creeing Hindi — the lingua franca of
larly, Jhaldah Girls Higher Second- North India’s half a dozen socio-eco-
ary, with student strength of 2,600, nomic backward but most populous
has 12 teachers, and Ichag High states — the national language is high
School with 1,286 students, is left priority for them. Leaders of the ruling
with only nine teachers. Because a BJP at the Centre make no secret of of-
large number of teachers have opted ficially or unofficially ‘imposing’ Hindi
to return to their urban home towns. as the national language. Prime min-
Moreover, student attendance in ister Narendra Modi and home min-
government schools in some remote ister Amit Shah traverse the country
areas of the state has plunged so low making thunderous speeches in Hindi
that in April, the state government without translators.
shut down 6,845 primary and 1,362 This has sparked a reaction in
higher primary schools in the back- several more socio-economically ad-
ward districts of Purulia, Bankura, vanced states of peninsular India. The study Tamil, is not something new. It
Birbhum, Jhargram, Murshidabad newly elected Congress government stretches all the way back to the 1960s
and West Midnapore after an educa- of Karnataka has promised to inten- when the Congress government at the
tion ministry report revealed that sify the exclusive usage of Kannada Centre decreed Hindi as the national
they have less than 30 students on in government and administration. language countrywide. Riots broke
their rolls. And on May 22, the state’s Dravida out in Tamil Nadu and gave rise to the
Meanwhile in a state where Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) govern- Tamil nationalist DMK party which
education is highly prized, the chaos ment issued an order to make Tamil (together with its breakaway offshoot
evident in the school education as an additional compulsory subject the AIADMK) has been elected to
system doesn’t seem to bother chief in classes IX-X of all schools includ- power ever since.
minister Mamata Banerjee. She is ing 1,469 schools affiliated with the his new GO (government order) is
busy cobbling up a multi-party coali- Delhi-based Central Board of Sec- Tunder the Tamil Language Learn-
tion to take on the BJP juggernaut in ondary Education (CBSE), and 124 ing Act, 2006 which decreed learning
General Election 2024. schools affiliated with the Council Tamil would be compulsory for all
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) for the Indian School Certificate Ex- students in classes I-X. Over a decade
aminations (CISCE) from the start of ago, this legislation was resisted by
TAMIL NADU the academic year 2024-25. Hitherto, several education associations, aca-
Runaway language schools affiliated with these national demics and students and challenged
exam boards were free to choose the
in the high court which upheld it.
chauvinism medium of instruction and additional However on appeal, the Supreme
Court exempted students of schools
second languages.
A circular from the Directorate of
promoted by linguistic minorities in
ove for one’s native language Private Schools states that the syllabus the state and schools affiliated with
is a commendable virtue. But and exam pattern for students of these the pan-India CBSE, CISCE and inter-
Lforcing it down the throats of schools will be determined by the Di- national exam boards whose students
everyone residing within a country rector of Private Schools. The final were permitted to choose two second
or state smacks of dictatorship. Espe- written class X exam for all private languages (including Tamil).
cially in a country comprising 29 lin- school students in Tamil language will This time round, the May 22 GO
guistic states in which English or more be conducted by the Director of Gov- is unambiguous that Tamil should be
accurately ‘Inglish’ is the language of ernment Examinations, and a sepa- taught as a compulsory, not additional
Parliament, judiciary and business. rate certificate will be issued to them. subject in all schools in Tamil Nadu
And in a country in which every citi- The state government’s resolve to including CBSE, CISCE, Cambridge
zen has a fundamental right to reside make all school children statewide and IB schools. However, manage-

28 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2023