Page 22 - EW April 2023

Education News

filed a petition in the Karnataka high court challenging the THEY SAID IT
December 13 circular. On March 10, a single judge bench
accepted RUPSA’s arguments and ordered cancellation of “The country is filled with self-confidence,
the assessment. However, the state government appealed foreign countries as well as foreign experts
the verdict and a special bench of the Karnataka high court are optimistic about India. In the middle of all
headed by Justice G. Narender upheld the appeal and gave
the government the go-ahead to schedule the assessment this, talk of pessimism, attempts to degrade
for March 27. Subsequently, RUPSA filed an appeal in the India, lower the willpower of the people is
Supreme Court, which dismissed the petition on March 27 taking place. It’s like the tradition of putting a
stating that “Let’s not interfere with the high court order. kala tika to ward off evil.”
The high court knows what is best in that state”. Prime minister Narendra Modi speaking at the India
D. Shashi Kumar, Today Conclave (March 18)
general secretary, Asso-
ciated Managements of
Private Schools in Kar- “India’s political system is veering towards
nataka (KAMS), which a full-blown tyranny. The targeting of
has 4,000 member Opposition leaders leading to the farcical
schools statewide, and disqualification of Rahul Gandhi, the
is a rival organisation of hounding of civil society and research
RUPSA, welcomes the organisations, censorship of information,
apex court’s decision. the suppression of protest, are harbingers
“As per the amended of a full-blown system of rule where all the
RTE Act, we are in fa- interlocking parts add up to the one objective
vour of annual exams
D. Shashi Kumar for class V and VIII of tyrannical rule: To create pervasive fear.”
children because learn- Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, public intellectual, on the BJP
ing outcomes dropped government’s targeting of opposition leaders (Indian
Express, March 29)
drastically during the Covid pandemic when children were
out of school. There’s a need to rigorously assess children’s
learning outcomes to provide appropriate remedial educa- “The National Education Policy (NEP) has
tion. The whole controversy around the exams is unneces- been made streamless and classless, with
sary,” says Shashi Kumar. multiple entry and multiple exit being a
However Lokesh Talikatte, president of RUPSA, special part of this education policy.”
which challenged the state government’s circular, insists
that the government has made a huge mistake in going Amit Shah, Union home minister, speaking at the
113th convocation of Gurukul Kangri University in
ahead with exams. “BJP governments at the Centre and Haridwar (March 31)
Karnataka have ignored s.30 of the RTE Act. While the Act
encourages schools to conduct continuous and compre-
hensive evaluation to assess children’s learning outcomes, “Why is this particular emphasis on Ivy
it specifically disallows board exams in elementary edu- League universities? If they come, it is
cation. The state government’s class V and VIII ‘annual alright, but there are several (other) excellent
assessments’ are like board exams that will put children universities around the world.”
under tremendous pressure to score high marks, and re- Jagadesh Kumar M, Chairman, UGC on foreign
sult in more students dropping out after class VIII,” says universities setting up campuses in India (Indian
Talikatte. Express, April 2)
Meanwhile with the state all set for the legislative
assembly election scheduled on May 10, the incumbent “A bloody war has killed fewer people than
BJP government’s last-minute announcement, and the pressure on India’s youth to succeed... In
later mismanagement of the class V and VIII ‘annual
assessments’ is another strike against the BJP for its poor such a scenario the idea of scrapping JEE and
education track record over the past four years. Prime similar entrance tests isn’t as drastic as it
minister Modi’s frequent visits to the state — where he sounds.”
addresses public rallies in Hindi — is unlikely to calm the Robin David comparing the number of student suicides
big anti-incumbency wave that’s building up in the state. (13,000) in India to the number of people (8,000) killed
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) in the Ukraine war (Times of India, April 2)

22 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2023