Page 29 - EW June 2023

THEY SAID IT

“Earlier, we used to give just kitabi gyan
(book learning) to our students, but this will
change with the introduction of the New
Education Policy. The new NEP focuses on
practical learning. Such an education system
is at the centre of NEP and now it is the
responsibility of the teachers to implement
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin
this system on the ground.”
Prime minister Narendra Modi, addressing the 29th
ments of national and international exam boards are set Biennial Educational Conference, organised by the All
to challenge the GO as being in violation of the Supreme India Primary Teachers Federation (May 12)
Court’s exemption order of 2007.
Since then, the state government had lost enthusiasm
for framing rules and directing private schools to teach “Textbook revision will definitely happen as
Tamil as a compulsory second language. However, the it was one of the poll promises. The revision
issue was resurrected in a June 2014 notification that all will happen in the interest of students
school children were obliged to write a Tamil paper in and without any flaws on the part of the
the class X public exam in 2016. Opposing thisdecree, government, education authorities and the
8,300 students moved the high court saying they had not administration.”
been taught Tamil in their schools because the Act was in Madhu Bangarappa, Karnataka’s minister for school
abeyance. Moreover, aided minority schools argued the education in the newly elected Congress government
government had failed to sanction Tamil teachers recruit- (June 1, New Indian Express)
ment.
he state government’s stop-go, lack of enthusiasm in
Tframing the rules under the Act has generated much “One must admire the patience and
confusion and resentment. In 2016, it proposed teaching diligence of the protesters faced with the
Tamil in class I from academic year 2016-2017 so students wall of contempt and indifference, and then
could write a board exam in 2024-2025. It also said that surviving it calmly. They realised that politics
students who were transferred and joined class IX or X needs networking and solidarity as well as a
and had not studied Tamil earlier, would be exempted. community ready to listen to their demands.
In 2019, this proposal was sanctified by the Madras high A claim to justice becomes the new ballet
court. of solidarity. This was the message that
“The only solution is for the government to issue a should have been broadcast from the new
fresh GO stating that Tamil should be taught as a second Parliament building...”
language. It can then request other boards to conduct
Tamil exams at two different levels — exam A for stu- Shiv Visvanathan, professor, OP Jindal Global
dents who have learnt Tamil from class I, and exam B for University, and social scientist on the ongoing protest
by wrestlers (June 1, Deccan Herald)
students who have learnt Tamil from class VI onwards.
The government can also provide downsized syllabus and
support with appropriate textbooks for national and in- “But investments in education and health
ternational boards,” says ATB Bose, general secretary of are long gestation projects that do not yield
Association of Managements of Private Schools of Tamil results in one electoral cycle or even over a
Nadu. generation. The improvements are gradual,
The DMK government’s love of Tamil which it wants to
make compulsory for all students regardless of their exam success is a process and while the benefits
board affiliation has not only generated chaos and confu- are perceived, they are not tangible. All
sion and disrupted children’s education, but tarnished the these attributes do not lend itself to a grand
state’s reputation as a hospitable destination for private inauguration like the inauguration of an
investment. Curiously, the DMK leadership seems un- edifice.”
aware that businessmen are likely to avoid investing in a Duvvuri Subbarao, former RBI governor, on the
state where language chauvinism has run wild. inauguration of the new Parliament building (Times of
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) India, June 1)

JUNE 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 29