Page 18 - EducationWorld May 2021

Education News

most schools in peri-urban and rural reopened from February
areas, school managements concede 12, the second pandemic
that 80 percent of MSBSHSE schools wave of April has forced
cannot mark students fairly on the ba- their shutdown again.
sis of internal assessments this year. On April 19, education
“A huge number of state board minister Partha Chatter-
schools have not conducted a single jee directed all govern-
pre-board exam this year, let alone ment and government-
continuous and comprehensive evalu- aided schools to close
ation. Asking such schools to submit from April 20, bringing
marks on the basis of internal assess- the summer vacation
ment will be a farce. Schools will vastly forward a month ahead
inflate marks awarded to advertise of schedule. Thus far,
their pass percentages. Parents un- the state government has
happy with marks awarded and wards Mamata Banerjee: thumping third victory not cancelled classes X
denied admission into top-ranked ju- and XII school-leaving
nior colleges will get court stay orders,” WEST BENGAL exams of government schools. Now
the Nagpur-based RTE Foundation Bengal that the assembly election is over
warns Sachin Kalbande, founder of
and Covid positive cases and fatali-
that represents 3,000 self-financed ties are plateauing, they may be held
English-medium schools. exceptionalism in July, just before the start of the
Despite repeated demands from all new academic year.
stakeholders to cancel in-school ex- est bengal’s unprecedent- Meanwhile, the pan-India CBSE
ams especially after the second wave ed eight-phase legislative and CISCE exam boards have can-
of the pandemic hit the state in Febru- Wassembly election ended celled their class X and postponed
ary, the education ministry remained on May 2 with a thumping third-time class XII exams. Even if not for law
confident of holding in-school cam- victory for the Trinamool Congress and order — widespread post-poll
pus exams and postponed the class (TMC) and incumbent chief minister violence in the state has raised the
X exam from March to April (April Mamata Banerjee, not necessarily shadow of President’s rule over West
29-May 20). It was only when CBSE in that order. Not only did the dream Bengal — Banerjee’s return to power
cancelled its class X board exams on of the BJP led by star campaigners in Writers Building, Kolkata augurs
April 14 that Maharashtra’s education — prime minister Narendra Modi relatively well for the education sec-
minister finally announced cancella- and Union home minister Amit Shah tor.
tion of the SSC (class X) exam. — of winning more than 200 of the During her previous terms in
he minister, who has since been 294 seats in the legislative assembly office, the TMC government made
Tholding consultations to devise vanish in smoke, Banerjee’s TMC a discernible effort to bring about
“fair and accurate assessment crite- was swept back into office with 214 the promised poribartan (change)
ria,” has offered students dissatisfied seats, three more than in 2016. in K-12 and higher education with
with their exam scores the option of This historic election was con- several initiatives. The most success-
writing the paper again at a later date. troversially held even as the Co- ful among them is the Kanyashree
Among the various suggestions under vid-19 pandemic was running riot scheme introduced in 2013, which
consideration is to assess children on statewide. On April 24, West Bengal provided adolescent girl children
more than just this year’s internal as- (pop.91 million) reported 14,281 in the 13-19 age group three-tier
sessments. new Covid-19 cases and 59 deaths of scholarships of Rs.500 per year for
Yet another suggestion to deal with which 20 were reported in Kolkata. continuing their education, a one-
colleges experiencing huge demand Notably two TMC and one Congress time payment of Rs.25,000 at age 18
for junior college admissions is for candidate succumbed to the deadly and full tuition waiver for pursuing
a common online junior college en- virus while campaigning before the postgraduate college education.
trance exam to provide all school-leav- Election Commission — which has Initiatives in primary education
ers with a level-playing field. This is come in for scathing criticism from include measures taken to ensure
perhaps the best suggestion although the judiciary — banned all mass ral- regular attendance of teachers in the
it will impose further stress on stu- lies from April 12 onward. state’s 92,000 government schools;
dents already stressed out by haphaz- Amidst this chaos, public school opposing the no-detention (s.16)
ard online learning for an entire year. education in the state has been hard provision of the RTE Act, 2009 and
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) hit. Though schools were partially inaugurating 100 English-medium

18 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2021