Page 22 - EW July 2025_Neat

Education News

People across West Bengal, ment-aided schools had recorded
which has a rich tradition of 3.12 lakh new enrolments. Projec-
education leadership respected tions indicate that the number could
and treasured statewide, espe- rise to 4.5 lakh by August. Against
cially by the influential bhadral- this, the total number of new admis-
ok (refined middle class) which sions in the state’s 12,631 private
has survived communist efforts schools at the start of the academic
stretching over half a century year is estimated at 2.8 lakh.
to root them out, are becoming Although spokespersons of the
increasingly aware that TMC’s ruling DMK party ascribe this phe-
worst scandals are in the educa- nomenon to “steps taken by chief
tion sector followed by crimes minister M.K. Stalin and the impor-
against women citizens. The tance provided to (public) school
RG Kar Hospital atrocity of last education,” monitors of the educa-
August was committed against South Calcutta Law College protest tion sector in Chennai attribute it to
a woman student. This has been a delay in Right to Education (RTE)
followed by the gang rape of a woman Rabindra Bharati University, Shan- Act, 2009 admissions into private
student of South Calcutta Law Col- tiniketan, established by the state schools.
lege last month. Moreover in the latest government in 1962 to commemorate Under s.12 (1) (c) of the RTE
gruesome incident, the prime accused the birth centenary of Nobel laureate Act, private unaided non-minority
is Monojit Mishra, a former student of Rabindranath Tagore: “These inci- schools are obliged to reserve 25
the college and former president of the dents have exposed a governance ma- percent capacity in their primary
Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), chinery that is not just incompetent section (classes I-VIII) for children
the student wing of TMC. but maliciously harmful. Add to this, from “poor” households in their
The fact that a repeat offender like the freeze on recruitment of college neighbourhood with state govern-
“ Monojit Mishra continued to wield professors, leaving classrooms under- ments obliged to reimburse the cost
unchecked power despite multiple staffed, and stranglehold of political of education provision on the basis
complaints reflects not just adminis- forces on university campuses, where of per-child cost in government
trative failure, but the terrifying power party loyalists override merit, harass schools. Typically, about 70,000-
of TMCP on campuses. These repeat- students, and silence dissent. What 80,000 EWS household children in
ed horrors speak volumes about a gov- Bengal is witnessing is not misgover- Tamil Nadu are admitted into private
ernment that has failed to safeguard nance — it is a deliberate dismantling schools under s.12 (1) (c) every year.
students, allowing party interests to of public education in the state, where But this year, these admissions
override law, accountability and basic political gain is pursued at the cost of have come to a halt. The RTE admis-
human decency,” says Swapan Man- an entire generation’s future.” sion portal — critical for application
dal, General Secretary of the Bengal With West Bengal’s legislative as- and seat allocation — is non-func-
Teachers and Employees Association sembly elections less than a year away, tional. And this is not just a technical
(BTEA). Mamata Banerjee’s prospects of being glitch. According to sources in the
Within West Bengal’s respected re-elected for a record fourth consecu- education ministry, the portal has
intelligentsia, there is widespread tive term are dimming by the day. not gone live because the state gov-
dismay and disillusionment that the Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) ernment is deliberately withholding
state’s once respected public K-12 the process, frustrated about pending
school system, in which over 50,000 TAMIL NADU dues from the Centre because of the
sanctioned teachers’ posts are vacant DMK government’s refusal to imple-
because of court stay orders and TET Convenient ment the National Education Policy
cancellation, has been severely dam- (NEP) 2020, specifically the three-
aged if not wrecked. An estimated opportunity languages learning mandate of the
8,000 schools have been shut down policy. DMK ministers allege that the
even as the TMC government’s mis- s classrooms reopened on june Centre is arm-twisting Tamil Nadu
handling of the Covid pandemic dur- 2, available data indicates into accepting NEP and signing up
ing which all schools statewide were Athat there’s a rush for admis- for centrally-driven schemes like PM
closed for 99 weeks, forced 8 million sion into government schools rather SHRI Schools.
students out of primary schools. than private K-12 institutions. By The Tamil Nadu state govern-
Comments Biswanath Chakra- June 17, Tamil Nadu’s 37,211 govern- ment has halted admissions into
borty, professor of political science, ment schools and 12,631 govern- private schools because it claims it

22 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2025