Page 20 - EW June 2021 Low Res

Education News

In effect, because of chronic under-investment in THEY SAID IT IN MAY
public education and teacher training, for-profit coach-
ing centres large and small have emerged as informal “For the sangh parivar, faith and bigotry take
parallel primary-secondary schools and colleges. Now precedence over reason and science. In acting
with the pandemic having forced the prolonged closure of as he does, Narendra Modi only reflects the
schools and cancellation of highly competitive board and narrow-mindedness of his own ideological
college entrance exams, India’s estimated 65,000 coach- upbringing.”
ing schools have lost their sheen and only the fittest with
staying power and technology will survive. Ramchandra Guha, historian, on how the BJP’s
hindutva irrationality has made India’s war on
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)
Covid-19 more difficult (Scroll, May 23)
TAMIL NADU “The pandemic has accelerated our world into
Shaky foundations fear a new era. It has forever impacted our world.

It has forever influenced our perspective and
he continuing closure of all schools and higher if we weren’t clear before, we know now: Our
education institutions nationwide to safeguard world is interconnected. Our world is interde-
Tchildren from being struck down by the dreaded pendent, and our world is fragile,”
Coronavirus, has prompted an almost 70 percent drop Kamala Harris, US vice president (New Indian Express,
in pre-primary admissions in nearly 3,000 aided and May 28)
12,000 unaided private schools across Tamil Nadu
(pop.68 million). According to a survey conducted by “Let us have a universal, free vaccination
the Tamil Nadu Nursery Primary Matriculation Higher policy to save the nation from Covid. I have
Secondary and CBSE Schools Association, in the aca- suffered a lot. I don’t want my fellow citizens
demic year 2020-21 pre-primary admissions aggregated to suffer even a fraction of what I have done,
6.3 lakh, plus 1.2 lakh poor children admitted under s.12 and certainly not to do worse than me as so
(1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory many have, as the tragedy unfolded in the
Education (RTE) Act, 2009. In the current academic country.”
year which commences in mid-June, preschool admis-
sions have totalled a mere 2.5 lakh. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, in a video
message from Covid sickbed commenting on the
Usually in May, there is a rush for preschool admis- BJP government’s vaccines policy (June 2)
sions with top-ranked pre-primaries closing the admis-
sion process by the second week of the month. However,
this year most schools have kept the admission window “After considering all the valuable inputs and
open till the time of writing this report. Many of them suggestions, the honourable Prime Minister
having slashed admission and tuition fees to fill capacity. decided to cancel the CBSE class 12 board
“For this academic year exams. This is a student-centric decision, and
2021-22, we have reduced I am sure that it will benefit our students in
the annual fee for LKG the future.”
(lower kindergarten) and Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union education minister (India
UKG from Rs.30,000 to Today, June 3)
Rs.20,000. Despite this, we
have filled only one against “CBSE should learn from international cur-
the four-five pre-primary riculums to build institutional strength to
classes we fill normally. develop valid and reliable around the year
Although the usual number
of parents have collected assessments as against one final exam. It
Priyanka Nandhakumar application forms, they have should now use this crisis as an excuse to
not formally admitted their drive systemic accountability for internal and
children. Most are waiting for in-school classes to com- alternative assessments across its schools.
mence once the Covid situation improves and schools After all, life can’t be dictated by a three-hour
reopen. A minority have preferred to give their chil- exam.”
dren homeschooling because of the widespread belief Vishnu Karthik, CEO, Heritage Xperiential School,
that youngest children can’t learn in the online mode,” Gurugram (Financial Express, June 4)
says Priyanka Nandhakumar, secretary of the Sri

20 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2021