Page 20 - EW August 2021

Education News

Already, she has become more visible on the national THEY SAID IT IN JULY
stage repeatedly speaking up on national issues – the
prolonged farmers’ agitation near Delhi and the Pegasus “Laboratories of 21st century India, our schools
spyware row in which she has urged the Supreme Court must give our children the opportunity to ex-
to take suo motu cognisance of government malfeasance, plore themselves and thrive. A robust school
and her call to opposition parties to form a united front education system will help build a knowledge
against the BJP. With General Election 2024 looming on society and lay the foundation of a New India.”
the horizon, the stormy petrel chief minister of West Ben-
gal may well emerge a key player in a mahagathbandhan Dharmendra Pradhan, the newly appointed Union
education minister (India Today, July 11)
— mega coalition — that is crystallising to take on the BJP
juggernaut. Unless the long arm of the law stops her.
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) “We accept that there have been deaths due
to Covid. e prime minister himself has said
TAMIL NADU deaths must be recorded. ere is absolutely
Confusing court order no reason to hide this… But to blame all deaths
on one person is not the right thing to do.”
Mansukh Mandviya, Union health minister (NDTV, July
N ESTIMATED 12,000 PRIVATE unaided schools in 20)
Tamil Nadu were given the green light to col-
Alect 85 percent of annual fees payable for the “ e social sectors of health and education
academic year 2021-22 by the Madras high court on have lagged behind and not kept pace with
July 30. our economic progress… e road ahead is
The court’s order was issued with qualifications.
The annual fee is payable in six equal instalments by even more daunting than during the 1991
parents who have not suffered a loss of income during crisis. Our priorities as a nation need to be
the Covid-19 pandemic period. The court’s order was in recalibrated to foremost ensure a healthy and
response to several writ petitions of private schools and dignified life for every single Indian.”
associations which challenged an April 20, 2020 state Dr. Manmohan Singh, former prime minister, on the 30th
government order issued under the Disaster Manage- anniversary of the 1991 economic deregulation and
ment Act, 2005 restraining unaided (independent) liberalisation reforms (firstpost.com, July 23)
private schools and colleges from compelling students
or parents to pay prospective annual fees or pending “World Bank research shows that in poor
dues for the lockdown period. Simultaneously, several societies education has been the route for
parents’ associations had also filed petitions pleading upward mobility across generations. If ad-
for an order to restrain private school managements ditional efforts are not made to neutralise the
from making students access to online classes condi- learning disadvantages contracted during the
tional upon clearance of pending and/or prospective lockdown, an entire cohort of children may
school fees.
Clubbing and admitting petitions filed by the Private forfeit the opportunity to move up the income
Schools Associations of Tamil Nadu and several parents’ ladder.”
associations, and citing the Supreme Court ruling in Duvvuri Subbarao, former RBI governor, in an op-
Indian School, Jodhpur and Anr vs. State of Rajasthan ed essay calling for investment in human capital
and Ors (May 3, 2021), development (The Times of India, July 29)
Justice D. Krishnakumar
permitted levy of contract- “ roughout the novel coronavirus pandemic,
ed annual fees for 2021-22 schools and public spaces have remained
with 15 percent deduction fairly open in Japan due to people’s respon-
for unutilised facilities. sible behaviour. As India prepares to reopen
The court added that its schools along with the newly adopted Na-
students cannot be denied tional Education Policy, we can borrow some
access to online classes insights from the Japanese system.”
under any circumstances
during the new academic Prachi Gupta & Prajakta Khare, professors of economics
at Temple University and Meiji Gakuin University,
year started on June 15.
Martin Kennedy Tokyo, on Japan’s primary education system (The
Moreover, he observed Hindu, July 29)

20 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2021