Former NCERT director denies saffronisation of textbooks

02 Oct : Former NCERT director JS Rajput, embroiled in the controversy over the charge of saffronisation of textbooks, on Friday said the government should be more worried about enrolment of children in schools than issues like 'communalisation' and 'detoxification'.

"We should realise that 2.5 crore children don't get enrolled in school while about two crore children drop out," he told a news conference in Bhubaneswar.

"What we need are school buildings, black boards, text books and teachers. This will solve 80 per cent of India's problems in the field of school education," he said adding, "If we can achieve this it will cause a revolution".

Completely denying the charge that he had indulged in 'saffronisation' of textbooks, Rajput asserted that what the NCERT had done was correct.

In fact, no director of NCERT can indulge in saffronisation as thousands of people are involved in the process, he said. Certain changes had been effected in the curriculum in all subjects since 1988 but only history was targeted by certain historians and "I was dubbed as non-secular".

"I am convinced that whatever we did during the last five years in the NCERT was in national interest, not in any party's interest," he asserted.

Teacher earns govt wrath

17 Sep : Ghanashyam Nayak believed that pressing students’ earlobes and slapping them were the best means of enforcing discipline. So, when he beat up Birendra Sahu for eating refreshments kept aside for visitors during a school function on September 11, he never expected to face the music for losing his temper.The government yesterday handed the teacher of Bipin Bihari Choudhury School for the Deaf and Dumb a suspension order for beating up a student and ignoring Naveen Patnaik’s order banning corporal punishment in schools.

“I had to suspend him. I hope the other teachers would take note,” school and mass education minister Nagendra Pradhan told media.He added that the same fate awaited teachers of other schools who beat up their students at the slightest pretext.Pradhan visited the school on Monday and found that Sahu, a Class VII student, was yet to recover from the “punishment” he received last Saturday. What appaled the minister was the brazen defiance of the teacher as well as the headmistress, who did not have an iota of repentance. The tough stand of the government has triggered a debate in the capital’s academic circles with teachers and parents divided over the decision to do away with corporal punishment.It will spoil the children,” said a teacher of Capital High School, adding, “from now on, the students will not listen to us.”

Secondary education in shambles

26 June : The dismal state of secondary education in Orissa reflected itself when 152 high schools across the state scored “Nil” results in the 2004 annual high school certificate examination, the results of which were declared today.

Nil results are officialspeak for schools where not a single student have secured pass marks.Of the 3.35 lakh students from 6,658 schools who had appeared in the 2004 examinations, 1.63 lakh students passed. Among the regular examinees however, the pass percentage was a little better at 52.54 per cent.

Against the national trend of girls outshining boys, the boys in Orissa did a better job as the pass percentage among them was 54 per cent against 50 per cent of girls. Among the 24 students who were placed in the rank of best 10 students, 17 were boys. Incidentally, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-run Saraswati Vidyamandirs continued their dream run as nine of their students were placed in the top 10.

But the large number of school with “Nil” results seems to have put the efficacy of the secondary education system in question. In 2003, not a single student from 197 high schools could pass. In 2002, Nil results were reported from 269 institutions and in 2001, not a single student in 271 schools could graduate from the high school.

The state government task force on education that prepared the Vision-2020 document a year ago, noted that for last three years, 27 high schools in the state have shown “Nil” results. All 27 schools are located in tribal-dominated areas. Of the 27 schools, eight are in Koraput, a similar number in Rayagada, two each in Malkangiri and Nawarangapur districts, four in Kalahandi and one each in Phulbani, Gajapati and Sundargarh. Incidentally, this year’s topper Pratik Kumar Sarangi hails from Tusura, a village in tribal-dominated Bolangir district.

“It’s really pathetic. But we are yet to decide what kind of action we can take,” said H.N. Das, secretary of the state Board of Secondary Education. As punitive measures, the BSE can de-recognise these schools. But if the board decides to take a reformist approach, then there would be more surveys to find out the “rot” in the system.

While the pathetic results would see the familiar round of blame game among officials of school and mass education department and the SC and ST development department, no one seems to be bothered about teacher absenteeism, lack of mid-day meals and the absence of facilities in the tribal areas. In Orissa, 10,000 of the 40,000-odd schools have no buildings, and over 40 per cent of classrooms do not possess a blackboard. More than 3,000 schools are single-room schools with just one teacher.

School's bounty

25 June : The state government may be struggling to pay the salaries of thousands of high school teachers across Orissa, but that has not stopped it from initiating steps to start about 1,100 high schools in as many gram panchayats.

Despite a provision for the payment of grant-in-aid to one high school in every gram panchayat, there is not a single high school in 1,100 of the 6,000-odd gram panchayats of the state. Most of these gram panchayats are located in tribal-dominated undivided Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi districts.

During the past four years, the Orissa government had denied salary to the teachers of 1,429 private high schools citing funds crunch. But just before the Assembly poll this year, Naveen had announced the payment of salary for teachers of these schools under the grant-in-aid scheme.

Concerned over the lack of high schools in the gram panchayats, the government is contemplating of initiating steps to expedite the establishment of the educational institutions in such areas.Orissa minister for school and mass education Nagendra Pradhan said the state government was contemplating of introducing a single window clearance system to expedite establishment of high schools in these areas.

Nightmare on college campus

When Saptarshi Roy cracked the all-India entrance exams to hotel management institutes last year and then made his way to a Bhubaneswar college, it was celebration time at home. Less than seven months later, Saptarshi, tormented physically and mentally, first by seniors and then by four classmates from Bengal, is recuperating under a psychiatrist in Calcutta and refuses to go back to college. Saptarshi's father, S.B. Roy, who is an officer in the security ring around former chief minister Jyoti Basu, has made several trips to the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Training and Nutrition, trying to fathom what went wrong for his eldest son in Bhubaneswar.

Saptarshi joined the Institute in August 2002. Initially, he put up at the college hostel where the ragging by seniors was brutal.. Then, four freshers from Bengal, living in a private mess off-campus, threw him what looked like a lifeline. "Why don't you come and stay with us?" they urged him, recounted Kalpana, Saptarshi's mother, on Monday. They asked him to pay Rs 400 as boarding charges and move in. More was yet to come One day, last December, according to the FIR lodged with Bhubaneswar police, his room-mates charged Saptarshi with stealing Rs 1,700 and their watches. They bashed him up till he "confessed" that he owed them Rs 2,600 for "everything" he had stolen from them. The FIR states that Saptarshi was forced to sign a blank cheque, with which his 'friends' withdrew Rs 2,900 from an ICICI Bank branch on December 16.

Saptarshi's father rushed to Bhubaneswar after receiving a distress-call from his son on December 17 and temporarily took him out of the mess. The FIR states that the next assault came on January 23, as the quartet waylaid Saptarshi, following which photocopies of his "confession" were circulated in class, where he was labelled a thief. Saptarshi was beaten up again then next day and the matter reached principal B.P. Tripathi, but that did stop another brutal attack after Saraswati puja. Following this, Saptarshi took an overdose of sleeping pills.

S.B. Roy then lodged a complaint with Shahidnagar police station on February 12 and on February 16, brought his son back home.The four have been arrested and are now in judicial custody.

Orissa: AIDSO resents fee hike; threatens stir

The All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) has warned of an intense students' agitation in the state if the government does not withdraw the hike in matriculation examination fees and other school fees. Briefing newsmen in Bhubaneswar, state president of the organization Rajendra Burma said students have resented government's apathy towards their demand of withdrawing the hike.

The fees for appearing in the matriculation examination, has been increased by as much as 52 per cent from the current year. Besides, there has been more than two-fold hike in other fees like recognition fee, enrollment fee, Madhyama, CT examination fee and even school games fee.

Burma said the steep hike would put education out of reach of many students in the state. He also accused the state government of double-speak on the issue. While many ministers, including revenue and mass education have made promises not to implement the decision, their actions reflect the contrary, Burma alleged.

Centre takes over Institute of Life Sciences

The Centre has taken over the Institute of Life Sciences Bhubaneswar at the request of the Orissa government. Established in 1987 it was engaged in research in various aspects of life sciences and modern biology. It will now be an autonomous body of the department of biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The main purpose of take over is to give it a national character and develop relevant areas of research in biology and biotechnology to address local problems of the state as well as to meet the societal needs. The Institute provided with a budget of Rs.15 crore for three years, would soon have major facilities and embark on research in cutting edge biology relating to cancer, Malaria and Environment.

At the just held first meeting of the society of the Institute in Bhubaneswar, the Minister for Human Resource Development and Science and Technology, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi said, it will be developed into a National Institute of excellence and repute. The Institute located in the bio-rich State of Orissa, should establish its own identity and focus on priority areas of research in traditional medicines, herbal products, and nano-biotechnology, and serve the cause of the nation Dr. Joshi said.

22 school children feared drowned as boat capsizes in Orissa

Around 50 persons, including 22 schoolchildren, were feared drowned, after a boat capsized in Baitarani river along Jajpur town in Orissa on Saturday. Till afternoon, the police had recovered one body. Eight fire tenders and a naval unit from INS Chilika had been pressed into service to fish out the missing.

Nearly 30 men had managed to swim ashore to the Debigarh ghat. Four other passengers were rescued by local firemen and admitted to Jajpur district hospital.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced an ex gratia assistance of Rs 50,000 to family members of the dead. He said the government would bear the medical expenses of the injured.

A high-level official team has been rushed to the spot to conduct an inquiry into the cause of the mishap and assist the district administration in the rescue operation.

In Delhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressed her deep anguish over the loss of lives in the tragedy and conveyed her condolences to all the bereaved families.

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