Page 24 - EW August 2025

Education News

grievance cell. ruption. Simultaneously, the rival BJP
In schools where one or two part- is under fire for encouraging or failing
time teachers are the only providers to prevent the vilification of Bengali-
of training in subjects like tailoring, speaking citizens in BJP ruled states
computers, or arts, their agitation as “Bangladeshis”. These emotional
has adversely affected students’ issues have provoked a tidal wave of
morale and future employment outrage across the state, setting the
prospects. stage for a fiercely contested assembly
“With supplementary and voca- election in April-May next year.
tional education becoming increas- Yet, the biggest crisis in contempo-
ingly important, school dropout rates rary Bengal is the accumulating tra-
may rise due to reduced curriculum vails of students and educated youth
variety. Public faith in government because of TMC’s prolonged misrule
schools already shaken by issues like of the education sector. The woes
delayed RTE admissions, has taken include loss of nearly 26,000 teach-
another hit. Moreover the state gov- ers’ jobs because of high court stay
ernment is likely to have to answer orders against scam-ridden recruit-
writ petitions filed under Article 14 ments, stalled hirings, crumbling
(Right to Equality) and Article 21 infrastructure, and campus safety
(Right to Life with Dignity),” warns failures — as evidenced in the RG Kar
Chennai-based educationist Dr. S. Hospital rape-murder and the South
Somasundaram. Kolkata Law College gang rape inci- ernment undergrad colleges and 31
Quite clearly the false division of dents. Moreover college admissions universities remain vacant, reflecting
teacher-educators into a permanent and WBJEE (West Bengal Joint En- growing disinterest and mistrust in
and part-time/volunteer binary gineering Examination for admission Bengal’s crumbling academic institu-
is morally and ethically indefen- into the state’s 103 engineering col- tions.
sible. Even if volunteer teachers leges) results have been delayed due hile the WBJEE results are yet
are assigned non-core subjects — a to the OBC reservation controversy Wto be declared, the ASC (Arts,
doubtful proposition — and teach over determining the actual number Science, Commerce) college admis-
only vocational and life skill subjects, of communities eligible for reserva- sions portal was belatedly opened
these subjects are becoming increas- tion in education institutions and gov- three months after the higher second-
ingly important in K-12 curriculums. ernment jobs. The future of an entire ary board exam. On July 30, the last
Justice and equity demands that the generation of West Bengal’s children date for submitting applications to
Tamil Nadu government realigns its and youth is very cloudy. undergraduate courses, West Bengal
expenditure budget priorities to cut Repeated bungling and corruption education minister Bratya Basu an-
the state’s temporary teachers a fair in higher education has triggered a nounced that 3.59 lakh students had
deal and provide pay parity. Such sharp rise in school dropouts. Many registered on the state’s centralised
open and continuous vocational students, especially from underprivi- portal, with 4,311 of them being resi-
discrimination is not in the public leged households have lost faith in a dents of other states. Last year, when
interest and sets a very bad example system that offers neither teachers nor the portal was managed by the Higher
for school students. employment opportunities. There’s Education Department, the number
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) been a sharp decline in the number of of registered applicants was 5.3 lakh
students writing the class XII school- school leavers
WEST BENGAL leaving board exams in recent years. Monitors of West Bengal’s chaotic
Rising disillusionment Out of 1.1 lakh teens who passed the education sector are alarmed that
class X board exam in 2022, only 7.8
admission applications for the presti-
lakh wrote the class XII school-leaving gious top-ranked Jadavpur University
est bengal (pop.102 million) exam in 2024. In 2023, 6.8 lakh chil- (JU) have almost halved. Admission
is currently witnessing dren wrote the class X exam, of whom applications for mathematics degree
Whighly volatile political tur- 4.73 lakh wrote the class XII boards courses have dropped from 1,835 in
moil. Both major parties — TMC and in 2025. 2024 to 954 this year. In 2024, the
BJP — are in the dock. The ruling Tri- This pessimism extends to higher arts stream attracted 6,515 applica-
namool Congress (TMC) has become education. The number of college ap- tions, whose number decreased to
unpopular for crippling the public ed- plications is declining year after year. 5,238 this year. Similarly, application
ucation system through sustained cor- Thousands of seats in 955 state gov- for admissions into the Bengali lan-

24 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2025