Page 21 - EducationWorld May 2021

Mafatbhai Patel, governor of Madhya Pradesh. THEY SAID IT IN APRIL
Gour’s charge that government school children in
this Hindi heartland state — India’s largest state in size “People in Bengal were supporting her only
(308,245 sq. km) — learn very little is confirmed by the because they thought there is no alternative.
Annual Status of Education Report 2018 published by Now they regard BJP as an alternative.”
the highly-respected Pratham Education Foundation
(estb. 1994) — ASER 2019 and ASER 2020 focused on BJP president J.P Nadda in an interview with India
early years education and pandemic issues. According to Today (April 12)
ASER 2018, only 56.7 percent of children in class III (aged
eight and above) in MP’s government schools can read “ e fall-out of the Covid-19 pandemic
(Hindi) alphabets and 63.5 percent can identify numer- would have been far less serious had the PM
als. On the other hand, in private schools of the state 85.7 based his policies on the advice of India’s top
percent and 88.2 percent respectively can read alphabets epidemiologists rather than his penchant for
and numbers. Quite obviously the quality of early child- the spectacular and dramatic.”
hood (anganwadi) and primary school teachers being Historian Ramchandra Guha (The Wire, April 20)
recruited — some of them not qualified at all — by govern-
ment is very poor.
Contacted by your correspondent to explain how these “ ere is no logic of incentives or cross-
ghost colleges were affiliated by MCBU, Gauri Shankar subsidies or a free market in these decisions.
Brar (assistant registrar, MCBU) said: “I know nothing ere is no epidemiological logic. is is ad
about it.” hoc social Darwinism. e strong do what
Academics in the state are inclined to pass the blame they can, the weak suffer what they must.
for this racket to the students’ community. “Ghost colleg- A perfect metaphor for our healthcare
es and fake degrees system.”
rackets are thriving
because students Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta, former president, Centre
for Policy Research, on the Centre’s rudderless
and their parents Coronavirus policies (April 28, Indian Express)
are ready to pay
large amounts for “It is an extreme irony that while we want
fake degrees. They our children to study science in school, we
are interested in de- don’t want to apply scientific thought in our
grees rather than ed-
ucation. If students process... Millions of people went to take a
and parents choose dip in the Kumbh Mela. e world laughed
Dr. Neeraj Upamanyu higher education in- at us, as images of record cases and choked
stitutions with care hospitals contrasted with lakhs of people at
and diligence, they wouldn’t exist,” says Dr. Neeraj the river banks.”
Upamanyu, principal of the College of Pharmacy of the Chetan Bhagat, author, on how contempt for science
People’s University, Bhopal. has prompted spread of the Covid-19 pandemic
ut blaming gullible parents and students from small (Times of India, April 25)
Btown and rural communities who are swayed by the
intensive advertising campaigns and smooth-talking “It is one thing to say that the State may
agents of dubious colleges is a classic case of passing the regulate the fee structure of private
buck. Quite clearly supervisory authorities all the way unaided schools to ensure that the school
from UGC, NCTE, universities and state governments management does not indulge in profiteering
are guilty of negligence, if not worse. Instead of pressing
state governments to prosecute fraudsters, UGC merely and commercialisation, but in the guise of
publishes an annual list of fake colleges and universities exercise of that power, it cannot transcend
while state universities don’t rigorously check out affili- the line of regulation and impinge upon the
ation applications. Neither do state governments vigor- autonomy of the school to fix and collect
ously prosecute such instances of academic fraud. ‘just’ and ’permissible’ school fees from its
The ultimate losers of official negligence and irrespon- students.”
sibility at all levels are vulnerable children who are obliged Supreme Court judgement in Indian School, Jodhpur &
to suffer fraudulent teachers. Anr vs. State Government of Rajasthan (May 3, 2021)
Aditi Maheswari (Bhopal)

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