Education Notes
Kerala
Social sciences text row
The congress-led United Democratic Front opposition coalition in Kerala has demanded withdrawal of a contro-versial class VII social sciences textbook, even as a government-appointed committee suggested modifications to certain portions of it.
Raising the issue during zero hour in the state assembly in Thiruvantha-puram on July 16, UDF opposition leader Oommen Chandy asked state education minister M. A. Baby to “shed false prestige” and recall the textbook that the opposition and many minority organisations allege contains “anti-religion and pro-communist” passages. Meanwhile an expert committee appointed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Demo-cratic Front government has submitted an interim report recommending deletions and additions in a controversial chapter titled Mathamillatha Jeevan (‘life without religion’). An 18-member committee, headed by noted historian K.N. Panikkar, was constituted following controversy over the content of the textbook.
According to Chandy, the expert committee’s recommendations clearly vindicate the opposition’s charge that the textbook is “full of mistakes”. However, Baby said the committee’s interim report will be examined by a curriculum committee and the state government will take necessary action in the matter. Baby added that the expert committee has not recommended complete withdrawal of the textbook.
The disputed chapter recounts the school admission process of the child of an inter-religious marriage. It depicts the father refusing to disclose the son’s religion during his admission process saying, “let him choose his religion when he grows up”. This has been interpreted as “anti-religious”.
Bihar
New tabloid for children
The Bihar state government launched a fortnightly tabloid with the objective of developing the mathematical aptitude, scientific temperament and zest for literature, among children in state government-run schools, in Patna on July 18.
The Hindi language fortnightly Bachpan (‘childhood’) is being published by the Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC), and well-known NGO Pratham to cater to class I–V students. “It aims to provide extra study material outside the syllabus to children,” says A.K.Pandey, state co-ordinator of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme.
The SSA (‘Education for All’) campaign is being implemented in Bihar by BEPC. According to Pandey, the tabloid is being distributed to students of nearly 10,000 state-run schools. Sanjay Kumar, state co-ordinator of Pratham, adds that more than 500,000 copies of the tabloid have been distributed free of charge to children, since publication began in May.
Punjab
Teacher-police clash in Kapurthala
Police using batons and firing tear gas shells clashed with agitated unemployed B.Ed teachers demanding jobs in Kapurthala on July 27. Over a dozen teachers and five policemen received minor injuries in the clash.
More than 1,000 unemployed B.Ed teachers from across Punjab assembled at Kapurthala’s Shalimar Garden to present a protest memorandum to Punjab education minister Upinderjit Kaur for the delay in issuing appointment letters to 14,000 teachers recruited by the state government. The agitating teachers wanted to march to the residence of the minister but the police did not allow them, prompting the teachers to court arrest.
Delhi
Six new IITs operational
Eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will become opera-tional countrywide in the current academic year. New IITs have been sanctioned for Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh at an estimated aggregate cost of Rs.6,080 crore, finance minister P. Chidambaram informed the media after a meeting of the Union cabinet in Delhi on July 17. With the promotion of these eight new IITs, high quality technical education will become accessible to more students as a mere 2 percent of the 300,000 students who write the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) of the IITs, are admitted into the country’s existing seven IITs, he said.
As the new IITs have been made operational with immediate effect, the IITs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat will commence B.Tech programme classes for 120 students on temporary campuses and will be mentored by IITs in Madras, Guwahati and Bombay respectively.
The new IITs in Rajasthan, Punjab and Orissa will start their classes within the campuses of their mentor IITs in Kanpur, Delhi and Kharagpur respectively. The IITs proposed for Indore and Himachal Pradesh will admit their first batches in the academic year 2009-10.
Maharashtra
Higher secondary admissions fracas
CBSE and ICSE schools in Maharashtra have been advised to start their own higher secondary (class XI-XII) sections if they don’t agree with the state government’s higher secondary admissions policy. “As per a government resolution it is mandatory for ICSE and CBSE schools to run their own Plus Two classes,” Maharashtra education minister Vasant Purke said during a debate on education in the state legislative assembly in Mumbai on July 25. He warned schools affiliated to these pan-India examination boards that if they do not start junior colleges (Plus Two) to accommodate their own students, strict action would be taken against them.
Purke criticised the bureaucratic lobby for favouring CBSE and ICSE schools and said that a “code of conduct” is being drafted for them. The code will require them to teach Marathi as a compulsory language and sing the national song Vande Matarm, he added.
Defending the state government’s 70:30 formula which gives 70 percent admission priority to local students in admission to junior colleges, Purke said it will be implemented from next year. “The main objective of the formula is to encourage rural students into higher secondary education,” he said.