Page 30 - EW-January-2026

Education News

Of the staggering 5.8 million names struck off the 2025 THEY SAID IT
electoral rolls, a disproportionate number sport non-
Bengali surnames — Das, Singh, Shaw, Yadav, Sharma, “For a democracy to be truly robust, it must
Ram. Moreover, most of them are predominantly male, protect the “Three Ds”: Debate, Dissent and
often single migrants, from north Indian states — BJP’s
most reliable support base in Bengal’s urban belts. Equal- Deliberation. Without these, the sanctity
ly damaging for the BJP is that constituencies with high of Parliament is hollowed out from within.
Muslim populations recorded fewer name deletions. Debate on the merits of proposals, and delib-
In recent years, BJP has emerged as TMC’s main an- eration over the Opposition’s counter-sug-
tagonist in West Bengal by continuously alleging that Ba- gestions, are the lifeblood of parliamentary
nerjee has been deliberately facilitating illegal migration systems.”
of Muslims from Bangladesh to build a loyal vote bank. Shashi Tharoor, MP, in an essay titled ‘When
The first phase of SIR has dealt a serious blow to this Parliament becomes a rubber stamp’ (Indian Express,
carefully constructed narrative. “If the BJP’s allegations December 25)
were even partially true, SIR would have confirmed it.
One would have expected a disproportionately large num-
ber of Muslim voters — particularly those with Bengali “The hard truth is that once the British and
Muslim surnames — to be deleted from the rolls. Instead, the Maharajas departed, universities began
the opposite has happened,” says political commentator to be treated not as ends in themselves
and cartoonist Ajitesh Kar. but as means to address grievances... The
his, however, does not mean the TMC has shaken question was never what politicians and
Toff deep corruption allegations that have clouded its bureaucrats could do for the university,
prospects in the imminent legislative election. Since 2015, but what the university could do for them.
the end of its first term in office after Banerjee famously, In short order, the university became an
almost single-handedly built TMC and ended 34 years of extension of party and State, as seen in
continuous rule (1977-2011) of the Left Front government the keenness with which middle-aged
led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), cor-
ruption and mismanagement scandals within the educa- candidates partake in ‘student elections’...”
tion sector, especially in recruitment of teachers for the Rahul Sagar, associate professor at NYU, Abu Dhabi,
state’s 84,000 government and aided schools have rocked on why Indian universities don’t make it to top global
university rankings (Hindustan Times, December 26)
West Bengal. In a state that has traditionally valued good
quality education, memories of the Supreme Court judge-
ment of April 3, 2025, that nullified the appointment of “In 2035, it will be 200 years since Macaulay’s
25,735 secondary and higher-secondary teachers recruit- conspiracy, and with 10 years remaining,
ed by the state government in 2016 because of testing and India will demonstrate complete liberation
recruitment malpractice, are green. from the colonial mindset. Once the nation
Under Trinamool Congress rule, Bengal’s education
system has been debilitated by corruption, administra- is free from this mindset, it will take greater
tive paralysis and judicial scrutiny. The fallout is stark: pride in indigenous traditions and advance
West Bengal has the country’s highest secondary school further on the path of self-reliance.”
dropout rate at 18.75 percent and 2.8 lakh fewer students Prime minister Narendra Modi speaking at an event
have signed up to write secondary exams this year. More- commemorating the martyrdom of Guru Gobind
over, West Bengal hosts 3,812 of India’s 8,000 zero-enrol- Singh’s sons (Hindustan Times, December 27)
ment schools of 2024-25. In a state already burdened by
continuous capital flight and de-industrialisation during “A university that prioritises attendance
prolonged rule of the Left government, repeated educa- over engagement ultimately betrays its
tion scandals have aggravated graduate unemployment. fundamental purpose to nurture critical
With the 2026 assembly elections looming, West Ben-
gal’s electorate that accords high premium to education, is thinkers who can challenge and transform
forced into a false binary between political parties focused society... Coercion indeed is always
on point-scoring than on rebuilding schools, restoring the refuge of a pedagogy that has lost
trust and delivering jobs. Caught between these nihilistic confidence.”
narratives, the electorate is hapless, compelled to make a Shelley Walia, former professor at Panjab University,
choice between bad and worse. Chandigarh in an essay titled 'Mandating student
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) presence, erasing learning' (The Hindu, January 2)

30 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2026 “