Page 22 - EducationWorld September 2020

Education News

dren learning Hindi — or any other from September 1-6, even as the ag-
language — voluntarily. “About 40 gregate number of coronavirus posi-
percent of Tamil Nadu’s 4,800 pri- tive cases in India crossed 4 million.
vate-unaided Matriculation schools There has been a continuous cho-
teach English as first language and rus for postponement of this exam and
Hindi as the second because they NEET, the national common medi-
want their children to compete with cal colleges entrance exam, because
students of CBSE and CISCE schools of fear of examinees contracting the
in which Hindi is compulsory. There dread virus. Opposition leaders in-
is no state government pressure cluding Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, West
on them not to teach Hindi,” says Bengal chief minister Mamata Baner-
A . T . B . B os e , general secretary of jee, her Odisha counterpart Naveen
the Association of Managements of Patnaik, DMK leader M.K. Stalin in
Private Schools of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu and Delhi deputy chief
The managements of some pri- minister Manish Sisodia had demand-
vate primary-secondary schools in ed postponement. However on August
the state teach Hindi as an informal 17, the Supreme Court dismissed a
subject. “We teach Hindi so that public interest litigation writ seek-
when they grow up and leave the ing postponement of the two exams,
state for higher education or work, stating a “precious year” of students
our students should not experience cannot be wasted and life has to go on.
communication difficulties. All our By some accounts the world’s most
Hindi language classes are activity- competitive exam, IIT-JEE is held in of shifts increased from eight to 12 to
oriented where students’ participa- two stages — Mains and Advanced. It maintain social distancing norms.
tion is necessary, but there is no selects students to be admitted into owever according to West Bengal
Hindi exam. This model has really the country’s 23 blue-chip IITs, 31 Hchief minister M a m a ta B a n e r -
worked well for our students and NITs (National Institutes of Technol- j e e , because of national lockdown
these skills also help them succeed in ogy) and Centrally Funded Technical constraints, 75 percent of IIT-JEE
further education and in workplac- Institutions (CFTIs). (Main) candidates from West Bengal
es,” says . G irij a D e v i, principal IIT-JEE Mains was written by 9.58 couldn’t write the exam held on Sep-
D
of Anna Gem Science Park Ma- lakh higher secondary school-leavers tember 1. “Out of 4,652 candidates
triculation Higher Secondary School, from September 1-6. The top-ranked registered for IIT-JEE, in Kolkata
Chennai, which has 1,400 students 2.5 lakh students will become eligible only 1,167 wrote the exam despite all
and 70 teachers on its muster rolls. to write the IIT-JEE (Advanced) exam arrangements made as per NTA direc-
Clearly formulators of NEP 2020 scheduled for September 27 for ad- tives,” said Banerjee at a media con-
erred in raising the mother tongue mission into the IITs, NITs and CFTIs. ference held on September 2. With her
and three-languages learning issues. The other common national exam — forecast that conditions were not con-
Curiously they seem ignorant about National Eligibility-cum-Entrance ducive for holding these two national
post-independence India’s energy- Test (NEET), a pen-paper exam — is exams vindicated, the chief minister
sapping language wars and have scheduled for September 13 with 1.5 urged the Centre to reconsider the sit-
needlessly resurrected this dead and million school-leavers having regis- uation of the 75 percent who couldn’t
buried controversy. tered to write it. write IIT-JEE this year.
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) The Central government’s National In West Bengal, 188 engineer-
Testing Agency (NTA) claims that all ing colleges, including one IIT, one
WEST BENGAL arrangements were made to ensure NIT and Jadavpur University (NIRF
Good ill-wind smooth conduct of the exams, and ranking 17) admit 32,700 engineer-
ing students in 1,588 courses every
that more than 99 percent of the can-
didates were given their first choice of year. Moreover, 18 medical colleges
OSTPONED TWICE FOR FEAR OF centres and cities to write their exams — 13 government-run, four private
spread of the Covid-19 pan- with the number of examination cen- and one Central government-run —
Pdemic, the IIT-JEE (Joint tres increased to 660 from 570 for IIT- offer a mere 2,600 seats. Every year,
Entrance Examination) for admis- JEE, and 3,843 from 2,546 for NEET. 150,000-200,000 school-leavers from
sion into the IITs (Indian Institutes Moreover, the number of examinees West Bengal (pop. 91 million) prepare
of Technology) and top-ranked engi- per shift was reduced from 1.32 lakh to for these exams with many of them
neering colleges countrywide was held 85,000 for IIT-JEE, with the number signing up with coaching institutes

22 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020