Page 25 - EW September 2025 Final

THEY SAID IT

In a country like India, in which deeply
conservative norms inform the aspirations
of young girls... the school can be an exciting
and liberating arena in which to offer an
alternative vision of womanhood... But in
the new NCERT Social Sciences textbooks
for Class 7, two extraordinary women have
been calamitously excised from the records —
Razia Sultan and Noor Jahan.”
Ira Mukhoty, historian, in an essay ‘Razia Sultan and
Noor Jahan: What girls lose when queens are erased’
Students protesting WBJEE results delay (Times of India, August 31)

Meanwhile academics in Kolkata are alarmed that mis-
governance issues are prompting rising student vacancies “Oxford University, Cambridge University
in Kolkata’s undergrad colleges. After three days of admis- and the Imperial College, London are in close
sion process through the state common admission portal geographical proximity to each other. Yet
(CAP) ended on August 25, 70 percent of 7 lakh seats in each one of them teaches different things
Bengal’s engineering colleges were vacant. Data from the in mathematics at the undergraduate level…
first merit list published indicates that of 309,667 eligi- This makes one wonder why the UGC has
ble candidates, only 230,000 confirmed their admission. chosen to micromanage the design of the
Academics fear that the final enrolment figures will be mathematics undergraduate curriculum?”
below averages of previous years. Colleges affiliated with
Calcutta University are also experiencing record-low ad- Dinesh Singh, former vice chancellor of Delhi University,
questioning UGC’s decision to prescribe a common
missions. At AJC Bose College, of 3,000 seats, only 840 maths curriculum (The Sunday Indian Express,
have been filled. September 7)
According to informed academics, the state’s higher
education is confronted with a full-blown crisis. In 2023,
40 percent of engineering seats and 53 percent of ASC “These learning outcomes reflect more than
undergraduate seats in West Bengal were vacant. In 2024, just academic failure — they expose a calcu-
the vacant capacity was 60 percent for engineering col- lated dismantling of critical thinking, curi-
leges and almost 5 lakh in ASC colleges. In 2025, the situa- osity, and analytical reasoning. They reveal
tion “has become catastrophic” with 700,000 ASC college a broader attempt by the BJP government
seats vacant even as WBJEE counselling drags on after an to hollow out the democratic and scientific
unprecedented 117-day delay in results and admissions. consciousness of future generations, replac-
“What is unfolding in West Bengal is nothing short
of an educational bloodbath. When year after year seats ing it with rote memorisation and ideological
go vacant, higher education institutions weaken, depart- conformity.”
ments shrink, faculty morale collapses, and campuses be- Renuka Chowdhury, Congress MP, in an essay titled
come hollow shells. This systematic erosion will not just ‘Sabotaging the future: BJP’s assault on public
cripple Bengal’s academic ecosystem but also deal a dev- education’ (Deccan Herald, September 8)
astating blow to its economic future,” says Biswanath
Chakraborty, professor of political science, Rabindra “Literacy goes beyond reading and writing.
Bharati University, Kolkata. It is a means to dignity, empowerment and
A deadly mixture of administrative inefficiency, popu- self-reliance. India’s literacy rate has risen
list government interference and culture of inertia in HEIs from 74 percent in 2011 to 80.9 percent in
is driving Bengal’s once admired education system into
irreparable decline. As a result the state’s brightest and 2023–24. But true progress will be achieved
best students are migrating to HEIs in other states and only when literacy becomes a lived reality for
abroad, leaving behind hollowed out schools, colleges and every citizen.”
universities recklessly issuing devalued certificates. Dharmendra Pradhan, Union education minister, speaking
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) on International Literacy Day 2025 (September 9)

SEPTEMBER 2025 EDUCATIONWORLD 25