Page 16 - EW June 2021 Low Res

Education News

from neighbouring Bangladesh, in- promote 100 government
cumbent chief minister and leader of English-medium schools and
the ruling Trinamool Congress party the first of them with 160
(TMC) Mamata Banerjee, cam- students was inaugurated in
paigning for an unprecedented third February 2019 in Kolkata.
consecutive term in office, gave high Quite clearly, the state’s
importance to education reforms and electorate and influential
upgradation in her election rallies. middle class in particular,
TMC’s communal harmony and are dismayed that West
socio-economic development strat- Bengal’s education system,
egy paid off handsomely. On May 5, arguably the best in India un-
Banerjee was sworn in as chief min- til the beginning and end of
ister of West Bengal (pop.91 million) prolonged Communist rule a
for the third time after TMC swept decade ago, has been reduced
the legislative assembly election win- Banerjee: unprecedented third term to pathetic condition. Within
ning 213 of 294 seats, two more than the state’s dwindling intelli-
in 2016. The high riding BJP which mother tongue. gentsia, there’s an emerging consen-
was confident of winning over 200 t is pertinent to note that West sus that the higher education system
seats was restricted to 77. IBengal has witnessed fierce debate thoroughly infiltrated by under-
While postmortems of political over medium of instruction in qualified CPM fellow travellers needs
pundits and analysts indicate that primary years since the CPM (Com- urgent upgradation to produce well-
the TMC government’s welfare munist Party of India-Marxist)-led qualified school teachers and faculty
schemes, ‘Bengali sub-nationalism’ Left Front government that ruled for higher ed institutions.
and minority votes consolidation, (and ruined) the state for 34 years “It might be wise, therefore, to
played a major role in this historic (1977-2011) uninterruptedly, banned supplement this ground-level task
win, they concede that Banerjee’s teaching of English in all government with the shoring up of every higher
education reform initiatives were schools. The rationale of this ban was education institute in the state. The
also a significant factor behind the to reduce the rate of school dropouts minister for education does not
party’s landslide victory. in rural areas, which experts in the need telling, certainly, that however
Unlike BJP and northern politi- party ascribed to aversion of English. depleted West Bengal may seem in
cians who seldom bother to include That decision, however, proved terms of its former glory, enough
reform of the country’s languishing counter-productive in the course of survives that could still be put to use.
school and higher education systems time as widespread English language World-class academics, scholars,
in their rabble-rousing election cam- deficiency led to two generations researchers and teachers still popu-
paign speeches, Banerjee’s education of students driving down higher late the higher echelons of educa-
reform agenda evidently struck a education standards and millions of tion in the city — all that is needed
resonant chord with West Bengal’s Bengal’s youth failing competitive is an unbiased, non-partisan, and
electorate, particularly the bhadral- national examinations. With the Left wholehearted commitment from the
ok (refined middle class). Unsurpris- Front government also de-industri- government for them to function to
ingly, following the very first meeting alising Bengal through aggressive their full potential,” wrote Rosinka
of the new Cabinet on May 10, she trade unionism, youth from English- Chaudhuri, director and profes-
announced her government’s intent medium private schools fled the state sor at Centre for Studies in Social
to establish English-medium govern- in millions in search of employment Sciences, Kolkata, in The Telegraph
ment schools in all 341 administra- in other states. (May 26).
tive blocks of West Bengal. To her credit, Banerjee started It is often said that what Bengal
Political pundits interpret this as course correcting the state’s disas- thinks today, India thinks tomor-
an astute anti-BJP strategy to project trous language policy from the start row. By reiterating education reform
Banerjee as a national leader and of her second term as chief minis- and rejuvenation — a subject hardly
BJP as a ‘Hindi, Hindu and hindu- ter. In 2018, the TMC government mentioned by most politicians — Ba-
tva’ party. Despite several Supreme promulgated a two-medium policy nerjee may well have awoken other
Court judgements and fierce op- in select government schools, with political parties to its importance,
position from the southern states, students given the option to enroll and in the process improved her cre-
the BJP’s National Education Policy in English-medium classes. The next dentials as a progressive, nationally
(NEP) 2020 proposes primary edu- year in the run-up to the assembly acceptable leader.
cation solely in the Hindi medium or elections of 2021, she promised to Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

16 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2021