Education system decaying due to political
Transcription
Education system decaying due to political
HIMALAYAN MIRROR EDUCATION/BOOKS GANGTOK, MONDAY 30 MARCH 2015 Education system decaying due to political interference: Delhi CM New Delhi: Ruing "decay" in education system, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal today said political interference was responsible for the decline and asserted that his government would not meddle and only focus on providing resources to the educational institutions. Kejriwal said education is the "topmost priority" of the AAP government and it would extend all possible assistance to the educational institutions in their pursuit of excellence. "Political interference shiksha ko khaye ja rahi hai (political interference has been decaying the education system)," Kejriwal said addressing the 10th convocation of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU). The Chief Minister said he has given the the Vice Chancellor of the university a "blank cheque" and asked him to prepare a blueprint to make the institution one of the top 100 universities in the world. "I have given the VC a blank cheque and have asked him to prepare a plan for the university so it can stand among top 100 universities in the world," he said. Vice President Hamid Ansari, who also attended the function, expressed concern over lack of research in the country, saying only one per cent of the students enrolled in higher education are pursuing research in various areas. "This reflects a lack of focus on research. India's output in PhDs is relatively small and its share in world output of science papers in 2012 stood at around 3.6 per cent compared to more than 14 per cent of China. "We have to aim at quadrupling our research and development base, stimulate research where R&D productivity is relatively lower and build large publicly funded an privately managed facilities to help researchers," he added. The chief minister said he will not allow any political interference but support the institutions by providing all required resources. "Education is the topmost priority of our government and I assure that there will be no political interference. If you want resources, if you want amendments in any laws or provision, approach us we will facilitate it but there will be no interference from government's side," he added. Jammu & Kashmir government reveals vision about education Jammu : Jammu and Kashmir Education Minister Naeem Akhtar said on Saturday that the coalition government is determined about course correction in education and the creation of a knowledge-based society in the state. "Knowledge-wise, J&K has historically been the source of knowledge and enlightenment in South Asia. The first Buddhist conference was held in Kashmir in the 4th century, this place was known as Sharda Peeth (seat of knowledge)," Akhtar said. "Even up to contemporary times, iconic people like Krishna Joo Razdan, Shiv Kumar Sharma, K.L. Sehgal and Mallika Pukhraj were born here. In not very distant past, Lal Ded and Sheikh Nuruddin Wali were born. Wali set up the first girls school in Kashmir during times when girl literacy was unheard of in South Asia." "Today our literacy rate in J&K has dropped to 6th rank in the country. The vision is to achieve 100 percent literacy level among females," Akhtar told a media conference on Saturday in winter capital Jammu. Akhtar said the present education system in the state is "a juggernaut which is either focused on employment or creation of infrastructure and the least spoken about in the present educational system of the state is the child". The minister said there are at present 24,265 schools with 16.68 lakh students and 1.43 lakh teaching staff. "This means in physical terms the state education department is half of the entire state government. And yet, the passout percentage of government schools is 50% which is 25% less than that of private schools. In the Jammu province during the last five years, just four students have figured in the top 20 in the 10th class exams," Akhtar said. The minister said the most difficult problem for the department has been postings and transfers of teachers. "It is not fully verified, but I have been told that there has been a racket in transfers and postings and the racket goes right up to the exam centre where bids were held at astronomical rates to manage exams", he said. The minister said all this will have to change. "We will ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency. I will make government schools competitive and attractive so that people send their children to these schools and not pay exorbitant rates at places where education had been reduced to a lucrative business," Akhtar bypassed to push inconsistent financial decisions such as diverting Rs.172.56 crore out of an OBC (other backward classes) grant meant for expansion in teaching faculty and general upgrade of infrastructure towards purchase of laptops for the batch of FYUP (four-year undergraduate programme) students...as well as diversion of funds from School of Open Learning," Banerjee wrote. Delhi University introduced the four-year undergraduate programme for students during the rule of Congress-led UPA. It was scrapped after the BJP came to power at the Centre last year. Banerjee accused Delhi University vice chancellor Dinesh Singh of misusing emergency powers to amend statutes and ordinances, take arbitrary decisions on "routine matters related to programmes and courses of study", tenure and processes of teaching and administrative appointments. "The VC ignored the government's reservation policy and implemented his own version of the 200-point reservation roster, which denies the reserved categories their entitlements of posts through the calculation of historic shortfall and backlog..." "VC of Delhi University Dinesh Singh is responsible for the current state of affairs," he said. HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY BIRTHDAY GREETINGS Cost f o Free Name : ................................... Mamata writes to Centre on teacher shortage in Bengal Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Union HRD minister Smriti Irani with a plea to consider appointment of untrained teachers for limited period as the state is reeling under severe teacher shortage in schools. The state argues that while the Centre has exempted other states regarding the same matter but has not made similar reliefs for Bengal. The Union Ministry has put an embargo on the appointment of untrained teachers from last month. As per the Centre's rule teachers without training beyond 31 March, 2014 will not be considered for appointments. As per this rule, teachers teaching from Class 8 are required to be trained. For Bengal, the situation is bleak. Recruitment of teachers through School Service Commission did not take place in 2014 due to the General Elections as the Court had ordered not to hold examinations scheduled on 29 and 30 March, 2014. Due to this lag, the State is facing a crisis hence the Chief Minister has requested the Union Minister to extend the deadline so that the same can be dealt with. The Chief Minister has informed the HRD Minister that the State Government intends to train the para-teachers and secondary teachers with Diploma in Elementary Education in the future. In this regard, the Government has also written to National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) with the same proposal. The Chief Minister has requested HRD Minister to look into the matter and take immediate steps so that this problem can be dealt with at the earliest. NDA, UPSEE exams clash, students at loss Noida: Thousands of students are in a quandary as the UP Entrance Test Examination (UPSEE 2015) clashes with that of the National Defence Academy (NDA), with both scheduled for April 19. The Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) conducts UPSEE for admission to various engineering and management programmes in its affiliated colleges. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the NDA examination twice a year. The officials of UPTU and UPSC both have ruled out any change in their exam schedule. R K Khandal, UPTU vice-chancellor, said that the university announced its entrance examination date two months in advance to avert clash of dates with other examinations. "It's late and nothing can be done now. This happens almost every year," he told TOI. Over three lakh students are expected to appear in the UPSEE 2015. The UPSEE for postgraduate programme is scheduled on April 18 and for undergraduate technical courses like BTech, BArch, BFA is on April 19. Thousands of students have applied for both NDA and UPSEE and are now left with no option but to drop one. Dhurv Sharma, a student, said that he had applied for both the examinations and now he is in a dilemma. "UPSEE and NDA are the two major examinations after Class XII. The officials should have coordinated well before finalizing dates. Why should students suffer from their fault," he said. Indian industry should donate to academia: IIT-R director said. He also said that relocation of teachers to places where their services are gainfully utilised, postings of teacher couples together at convenient places where they can deliver and incentives like laptops to middle school headmasters are just the beginning to make the turnaround possible. SFI asks Smriti Irani to sack Delhi University VC Kolkata : The CPI-M-backed Students Federation of India (SFI) on Thursday urged Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani to sack the vice-chancellor of Delhi University for alleged financial irregularities and autocratic decisions harming students' interests. SFI general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Ritabrata Banerjee, in a letter to the minister, said: "I am writing this letter with faith that the ministry, under your able leadership, will take this process to a logical end and will sack this VC for the unpardonable harm done to the public education." "Statutory bodies were 5 PHOTO Date of birth : ....................... Address : ............................... Priyajeet Office address : HIMALAYAN MIRROR, Gairi Gaon, Tadong, Gangtok, PIN: 737102, Email :[email protected] The Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal also accused the vice chancellor of pushing an allegedly "illegal B.Tech course" without approval from the concerned authorities, which has put "future of more than 6,000 students at risk". "His continuation at the helm of affairs (of the university) will only do further harm to the university," Banerjee said. Last Friday, the HRD ministry issued a "show of cause" notice to Singh, asking him to explain the situation resulting in introduction of the controversial FYUP and other allegations against him. The VC has been given 15 days to respond to the notice. Roorkee(Uttarakhand): IIT-Roorkee Director Pradipta Banerji said on Saturday that Indian industry should emulate the Western model and donate to academia in India while addressing the media on the sidelines of the Cognizance festival. He cited the examples of Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which receive generous funds from industry and achieve great results. Banerji gave his reasons for the absence of IITs in the list of the world's top 200 educational institutions which gets regular- ly mentioned by the president of India. "We did a study and presented it. It is huge that the IITs are within the top 400 (best institutes) in the world because our funding is peanuts. Their one department budget is more than our institution budget," said Banerji comparing IITs with foreign state universities like University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and National University of Singapore. The professor said that if the financial muscle of some foreign state universities is so much greater in comparison to IITs, then one can only imagine the financial might of foreign private universities like Harvard University. He also said that there are constraints in India and funding just cannot be raised from anywhere. The professor also clarified that he is not expecting funding to be similar to the foreign state universities he mentioned. "The government tries to help the IITs within their constraints, if they don't have the money, where will they get the money from." Banerji wished the continuation of funding to IITs which existed two years ago. It was Rs.190 crore for IIT-R. There is a huge crunch of space and need for more laboratories in IIT-R, he added. IIT-R is building a large lecture hall complex to centralize teaching and propel interdepartmental interaction and collaboration. The institute is planning to free up the present class room buildings to redesign them into laboratories and faculty rooms. India faces shortage of five lakh teachers New Delhi : India is facing a shortage of over five lakh teachers while the deadline for regularisation of teachers under Right to Education Act is only days away. RTE Forum, a network of 10,000 grassroot organisations working in 18 states, on Wednesday highlighted that an additional 6.6 lakh teachers need teacher-training. "It's a crucial juncture as the nation stands at the threshold of the RTE Act's deadline 31st March, 2015. Unfortunately, only 10 percent schools in India presently comply with all the norms and standards of the RTE Act," Ambarish Rai, national convenor of the RTE Forum, said. "We are facing a shortage of approximately 5 lakh teachers and an additional 6.6 lakh teachers need teacher-training. These statistics are particularly disappointing considering that March 31, 2015, marks the final deadline for teacher regularization and training," Rai said. At a national convention held here, the activists said new challenges have emerged as over one lakh government schools have been shut in multiple states, including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, K a r n a t a k a , Uttarakhand. "What is concerning is that the state continues to violate provisions of the RTE Act, recruiting contractual and untrained teachers with less pay. The status of teachertraining and teachertraining institutes is equally poor; and there is no clear road-map to improve the situation and quality of education," Rai said. The activist added that numerous low-cost private schools have emerged across the country, segregating the society furthermore on the basis of people's ability to pay. "In such a scenario, it is the extremely marginalized children of the society who continue to remain deprived of their fundamental right to free and compulsory education," Rai said.