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Education News

know, the admin capital of India’s these teachers can be
most populous state (215 million), identified and isolated.
are unanimous that revocation of the It is because officers of
July 8 order signals a major climb the education depart-
down by the state’s BJP government ment don’t perform
and acknowledgement of the political their duties that teach-
power of the teachers’ community. ers are being targeted,”
With by-elections for ten legisla- he says.
tive assembly seats due to be held Inevitably, this issue
later this year, the BJP government has become politicised.
headed by Hindu monk-turned-saf- Former chief minister
fron robes-clad chief minister Yogi Akhilesh Yadav took
Adityanath has chosen the path of to social media to de-
discretion over confrontation. Espe- Protesting UP teachers: forced climbdown mand that an online at-
cially after the state BJP performed tendance system should
poorly in General Election 2024 According to the Annual Status first be introduced in government
when it won only 33 Lok Sabha seats of Education Report (ASER) of the administrative offices. “No teacher
— 29 fewer than in General Election Pratham Education Foundation, wants to be late,” said Yadav, attrib-
2019. Evidently, the BJP leader- 29.2 percent of 1,531 teens from uting teachers late-coming to factors
ship in Lucknow has decided not 1,203 households in 60 villages in such as inefficient public transport
to antagonise the 6.28 lakh-strong UP’s representative Hathras district and long commuting hours.
government teachers’ community on can’t read class II level textbooks in Looks like in UP’s 132,855 govern-
the eve of the important assembly any language and 54.3 percent can’t ment schools, it will be business as
bye-elections. manage basic division sums. That an usual.
P’s government school teach- estimated 40-50 percent of highly Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)
Uers represented by the Uttar paid (relative to private schools) gov-
Pradesh Shikshak Sangh union ob- ernment school teachers are absent KARNATAKA
jected to the daily digital attendance every day is a related statistic.
register on several grounds. One, “Teachers with security of em- Suffer little children
that the privacy of teachers, especial- ployment, salary and perks have
ly women, could be breached as there a substantial say in the education he national education policy
was no saying how the selfies they system. Parents and their commit- (NEP) 2020 presented to the
would take to upload for attendance tees that check teaching and mid-day Tnation after an interregnum
would be used. Secondly, that it was meals, among other things, also of 36 years, accords high importance
an “affront to teachers’ dignity” to have a stake in the system. The only to early childhood care and educa-
suggest that teachers’ late-coming people who have no say in education tion (ECCE). To the extent that it
and truancy is widespread and is children. They cannot demand that mandates integration of three years
thirdly, “technical glitches” could they are taught and taught well. That of compulsory ECCE into the formal
prevent them from registering atten- is the tragedy of school education in school education system reconfigured
dance on time. Moreover, the union UP and countrywide,” says Sarven- as 3+5+3+4 to replace the previous
says teachers are often late because dra Vikram Singh, former director 10+2 system which had no provision
of issues beyond their control, such of basic education. for ECCE.
as bad roads and public transport However Rajendra Prasad However a new study of angan-
shortages. Mishra, vice president and spokes- wadis in five districts of Karnataka
The quick cave-in of the state’s person of the Uttar Pradesh Mad- reveals gross neglect of ECCE four
BJP government to the teachers’ hamik Shikshak Sangh (secondary years after NEP 2020 became law.
agitation has disappointed objective teachers association), which has Promoted under the Centre’s Inte-
educators because it’s well-known membership of 52,000 teachers from grated Child Development Scheme
that government primary-secondary government aided secondary schools, (ICDS, estb.1976), anganwadis are
school teachers in north India — is of the opinion that the govern- Central and state government run
especially Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — ment’s digital attendance mark- nutritional centres for newborns and
are highly indisciplined and respon- ing order was an over-kill. “Errant lactating mothers which also provide
sible for the rock-bottom learning teachers account for just one percent rudimentary early childhood educa-
outcomes of children in UP’s govern- of the total. If the administration tion to youngest children
ment schools. carries out proper audit of schools, The report, released in early June

26 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2024