Page 20 - EducationWorld January 2021

Education News

ers. THEY SAID IT IN DECEMBER
Educationists in Chennai are almost unanimous
that preoccupied with preparing for legislative assem- “When people come out on the streets to
bly elections scheduled for May 28, the ruling AIADMK protest against a law, they are not merely dis-
government has done too little to empower children agreeing but are questioning the legitimacy of
learning from home. With middle class parents and stu- the government. This is why the government
dents unwilling to touch under-resourced government sees dissent as a foundational attack on the
schools defined by crumbling buildings, chronic teacher
absenteeism and English teaching aversion, the over- very basis of the state. ”
whelming majority of children in government and aided Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, professor of political science
schools are from bottom-of-pyramid households which at Ashoka University, Sonipat (The Indian Express,
December 5)
can’t afford Internet connectivity and digital learning
devices such as desktops, laptops and smartphones.
Nor have government school teachers received special “About 18,000 of the 60,000 compliances in
digital teaching-learning training. India prescribe jail as a penalty for non-com-
ith the assembly election a mere four months pliance. Criminalisation should be cut from at
Waway, the AIADMK government had proposed least 75 percent of compliances.”
to restart classes in early January to please parents in Manish Sabharwal, chairman, Teamlease Services
favour of reopening schools. But following a sudden on India’s ease of doing business (India Today,
increase in Covid-19 cases at IIT-Madras and Anna December 14)
University in mid-December, the education ministry is
likely to postpone this decision as children are a high- “The purpose of the recent APMC laws en-
risk group. acted by the Central government is to free up
“The government should resume conventional the farmer from the stranglehold of the APMC
schooling for classes IX-XII students immediately with and allow him to sell his produce directly to
alternate days attendance. Neighbouring states includ- the highest bidder...”
ing Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka have done Arvind Panagriya, former vice-chairman Niti Aayog on
this. For government school students in Tamil Nadu, in the recently passed agriculture liberalisation laws
effect there’s been (AgNews, December 17)
no learning for al-
most one year. Who “Three big trends have emerged that affect
is going to replace the future of India. First, to establish a sheer
this year for them? myth of common Hindu identity to the Indian
Justice should be nationhood, secondly, to entrench its concep-
done to students
studying in govern- tion of majoritarian nationalism signalling
ment-run schools. soft bigotry against minorities and thirdly, to
Recent data sug- secure the Hindutva nationalism through the
gests that 300,000 effective centralisation of authoritarian top-
children in Tamil down unitary rule by weakening of institu-
Nadu have dropped tions and federalism and its practices.”
out of school with Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, delivering a lecture on
most of them hav- ‘Future of Indian Democracy’ (December 20)
ing joined the swell- M.J. John Arokia Prabhu
ing pool of manual “A lot of people tell me the AMU campus is like
labour,” says advocate M.J. John Arokia Prabhu, a city in itself — thousands of teachers, lakhs
vice president of the Tamil Nadu Private Schools As- of students... it’s like a mini-India. While on
sociation and legal advisor to the Delhi-based National one hand you have Urdu education, you also
Independent Schools Alliance (NISA). have Hindi; while you have Arabic you also
But with the AIADMK leadership worried about pre-
election reputational damage and having little time for have Sanskrit. This diversity is not just AMU’s
non-voting children, the entire academic year 2020-21 strength but also that of India.”
is likely to be lost for Tamil Nadu’s 6.7 million children Prime minister Narendra Modi delivering the keynote
in government and aided schools. address at the centenary celebrations of Aligarh
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) Muslim University (December 22)

20 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2021