EDUCATION - 2005 - Indian Social Institute

introduced in class 5 and ideally from class 8. Until the student reaches this class, the mothertongue should remain the sole medium of instruction," he added. Shah is credited with the viewthat the teaching of English from class one will make a child 'subservient' to a foreign languageand this would over a period of time affect the psychological, social and cultural mores of society.(Pioneer 12.2.05)Mass closure of private universities (11)New Delhi/Raipur, February 11: NINETY-SEVEN private universities functioning in Chhattisgarhwill have to close shop with the Supreme Court on Friday striking down a 2002 state law thatpermitted them to come up. However, to alleviate the suffering of thousands of students admittedin these universities, the apex court permitted the institutes functioning under them to seekaffiliation from local universities. Among the universities affected by the ruling are Rai University,Amity University, Kalinga Universit and NIILM University. The Supreme Court declared sections 5and 6 of the Chhattisgarh Private Sector Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Act, 2002,enacted by the then Ajit Jogi government, as ultra vires the Constitution. This law had permitted"self-financing" private universities to come up in the state. The court was disposing of a petitionfiled by educationist and former UGC chairman Professor Yashpal challenging the Act. Soon aftertaking over from the Jogi government, the BJP administration had begun a review of all theseuniversities and had on July 14, 2004 denotifled 60 of the 97 private varsities for not being up tothe mark. These universities had then challenged the state government's decision in the SupremeCourt. (Hindustan Times 12.2.05)BMC advertises abhiyaan on TV (11)Mumbai, Feb. 13: Where are the 4.5 lakh children between the age of 6 to 14 who should havehad their noses in their books under the BMC’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (Education for all)scheme? They hardly know they are entitled to free education under the SSA. Hence, to drawthese children to school, the corporation will soon advertise the existence of SSA on television.What prompted the BMC to advertise the SSA scheme on television? Several complaints fromthe citizens and the failure of the corporation to make this programme popular among the poor inthe past three years. The message would spread widely among the masses since television is ahousehold gadget in most of the slums in the city. The BMC has spent Rs 25 lakhs in 2004 onconducting a survey of children who do not attend school, but has failed to round them up and getthem to school. In addition, almost Rs 10 lakhs was spent on introducing playgroups in municipalschools, but the target audience never knew about thesp1 playgroups. According !toj the officialsin the adminis)-* tration department of the* BMC, the corporation had* spent Rs 50 lakhs in 2003-04) on painting the classrooms^* buying stationary and mak-| ing minor repairs to schoo)"buildings where there arej hardly any students. (Asian Age 14.2.05)Citizens educate NCERT on gender issues (11)New Delhi, Feb. 15: "Take the burden off and make education more real and life-skills oriented."This is the kind of curriculum that the public wants for the young minds at work in school. At leastthat's the message the National Council of Educational Research and Training, which is workingon putting together a new curriculum framework for school education, has got over the last twoweeks through emails that continue to pour in from experts, parents, teachers and even students.About 200 emails have so far made their way to the council through ncert_ncf@yahoo.co.in andcgncert@yahoo.co.in after the council put out advertisements in various newspapers seekingsuggestions of the public on the kind of framework they would like to create for the children.The advertisements were published at the end of January and the council has been getting mailsfrom different parts of the country since then. While some are concise, others give out an entireplan running into more than two pages for specific subjects and on what the outlook of theframework should be like. Interestingly, the education of the girl child is an area where a lot ofconcern has been shown by a number of people who have written to the council. (Asian Age16.2.05)Probe panel brings ICHR’s ‘bias’ to light (11)

New Delhi: All that was required to get a Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) fellowshipduring M M Joshi's tenure as HRD minister was to be a favourably-inclined journalist, have aresearch topic articulating the Sangh's vision of ancient India and, above all, a recommendationfrom a BJP functionary. Moreover, there was a definite bias against students from Aligarh MuslimUniversity and those from Left-ruled West Bengal. All this has come to light in the latest report ofD Bandyopadhyay, the one-man committee set up to inquire into the functioning of ICHR and theIndian Institute of Advanced Studies. Bandyopadhyay found that journalist Prakash Nanda wasasked to choose between ICHR's prestigious national fellowship and senior research fellowship."One is astounded by the total capricious and inconsistent behaviour of the Council in offering adouble fellowship to a person who was not connected any way to historical research. He was aprofessional journalist having published no serious work on history...It was a shocking episode ofdistribution of academic largess to a favoured person," Bandyopadhyay says in his report.(Times of India 18/2/05)NCERT plans to sensitise children gender, peace (11)New Delhi: If the NCERT has its way, these insights could form part of the school curriculum. It ispresently in the process of reviewing the National Curriculum Framework, a process done everyfive years. Besides covering regular topics such as English, Indian languages and mathematics,the NCERT has for the first time also included peace education, gender issues, heritage crafts,problems of SC/ST children and education for children with special needs. Twenty-one NationalFocus Groups comprising of eminent personalities are expected to submit their report andrecommendations in March. One of the suggestions is regarding English. "It's suicidal to forcechildren to study in English. This gives rise to muteness syndrome — they become hesitant whileconversing and stop interacting at times," says Dr Apoorvanand, member, Indian LanguagesCommittee. "Sanskrit, Persian, Tamil and Latin should be taught as classical languages. Hindiand Urdu should appear complementary to each other. Special focus is also on the study of triballanguages. Language books will have language maps." And Maths, that feared subject, will get amakeover. "The boredom, burden and incomprehension of Maths can be beaten with a newmethodology and curriculum so that it provides skills to handle life. We need to shift from content(algebra, arithmetic and geometry) to process. (Times of India 20.2.05)Panels to look into sexual harassment cases in schools (11)NEW DELHI, FEB. 18. Taking a serious note of the involvement of a Principal and a Vice-Principal of the Government schools in the alleged rape of a 16-year old student, the DelhiGovernment has decided to constitute committees in all the schools to work out the securitymeasures for students especially girls and also look into the cases of sexual harassment if any.Stating that yesterday's incident was "very unfortunate" and had to be seen in a larger context,Mr. Lovely said that although the incident did not take place in the school or any othergovernment premises but it was an act of a disgusting mind. He said that the Government hadalready initiated prompt action against the culprits and terminated their services in addition tostarting departmental proceedings them. Mr. Lovely said the committees would have a widerrepresentation and they would especially be assigned the task of taking care of the sexualharassment incidents and take steps to avoid occurrence of any such incidents in future. He saidit had been decided to strengthen boundary walls of all those schools that are lacking on this frontand even stated that a security survey would be conducted in all the schools to gauge thesituation from the safety aspect. (The Hindu 19.2.05)Over 52 per cent drop out of schools (11)NEW DELHI, FEB. 21. Four years after the Government adopted the "mission mode" touniversalise elementary education through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), only 47 of the 100children enrolled in Class I reach Class VIII. This puts the dropout rate at 52.79 per cent, which,according to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, "is unacceptably high." Chairing the firstmeeting of the Governing Council of the National Mission for SSA, Dr. Singh attributed the highdropout rate to a "lack of adequate facilities, large-scale absenteeism of teachers and inadequatesupervision by local authorities." Reaffirming the Government's commitment to universalisingelementary education, he said: "We give dates that have lost meaning. We need education for all,

the sudden revolt against her. Nearly 1,000 parents of students of the school protested againstMs Chhapra on Monday. Even the teaching and the non-teaching staff have staged an indefinitestrike until Ms Chhapra gives a written apology to their principal. The girl was allegedly givencorporal punishment by the principal, Ajit Kaul, on Thursday for writing messages on the uniformsof her fellow students. The parent of the student, who is studying in class 10, alleged that Mr Kaulhad slapped her daughter for writing farewell messages on the uniforms of other students. Shehas also registered a police complaint against the principal of the school with the Versova policestation. Ms Chhapra refuted the allegations made by the school authorities and other parents.She said, "The school authorities dragged her by her hair to the principal and threatened her thatshe will be expelled in case she speaks about the assault." Ms Chhapra added, "My daughter didnot write messages on the national flag and writing on the uniforms is definitely not a crime thatneeds to be punished." (Asian Age 23/2/050)Bill on education is just a ploy: Abu Bakar (11)NEW DELHI, FEB. 26. A two-day national consultation on the proposed "Free and CompulsoryEducation Bill 2004" was inaugurated today. Organised by the National Alliance for Right toEducation and Equity (NAFRE), [ the convention has over 200 activists and educationistsparticipating. Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman of the Minorities Commission, AbuBakar, said people living in the margins have been denied education by the class in power sinceIndependence. "The character of the State has been suppressive and coercive, whose deliberateplan is to keep education from the reach of the people. The proposed Free and CompulsoryEducation Bill 2004, scheduled to be tabled in Parliament during the ongoing budget session isnothing but another ploy to snatch education from the people," he said. While pointing out thatwith 35 per cent of the population currently living below the poverty line, Mr. Bakar said universalisationof education would become a reality only if the Government bears the opportunity costfor children earning a living for their family. (Hindu 27/2/05)Schools move to expel stress (11)New Delhi, February 26 : DELHI'S PUBLIC schools have moved to deal with one subject that'skilling their students: exam stress. The National Progressive Schools' Conference (NPSC), abody of over 100 unaided public schools, has asked its members to ,;| avoid publishing academicand /I. board exam results. "The rationIale is that such advertisements 1 boost competitivenessand stress 1 levels," says Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan Principal and NPSC executive member G.S.Negi. Students will receive grades in-I stead of marks up to class IX. I Grading is already in placetill class VIII as per CBSE guidelines. The schools will also set up mental health and life-skillsresource centers to help students learn stress management and deal with sexual health issues.Students will be given information on sexual health and related issues from junior classesonwards. "The information on dealing with sexual and reproductive health is called for in thesetimes to prevent misinformation among students. Even in junior classes, children will beacquainted with information on measures to recognise and prevent physical abuse," says NPSCSecretary and Laxman Public School Principal Usha Ram. (Hindustan Times 27/2/05)Omissions, deletions in Mahatma's Collected Works to be rectified (11)HYDERABAD, FEB. 25. The National Gandhi Museum has submitted its findings over thecontroversy surrounding omissions and deletions in the revised edition of the Collected Works ofMahatma Gandhi and the CD of the same, published in 2001 by the Ministry of Information andBroadcasting. The issue was brought to light in a story published in The Hindu (October 26,2004), where Gandhian scholars alleged major "tampering" of material in the revised edition.Reacting to the claims of Gandhian scholars, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, S.Jaipal Reddy, had asked the National Gandhi Museum to enquire into the entire question ofdiscrepancies in the revised edition of the Collected Works. In its report, the Museum has foundthat in the original version there are 86 cases where an item already appearing in the 90chronological volumes of the original edition has been repeated in the supplementary volumes(the original edition was divided into 90 volumes, while volumes 91-97 were known assupplementary volumes), and in 74 cases with a longer text and in 12 cases with almost thesame text. (The Hindu 28/2/05)

It’s good: Students (11)New Delhi, Feb. 28: Describing the Union Budget as "fair," academics as well as students havewelcomed the increase in allocation to various educational schemes. Vice-chancellor, JawaharlalNehru University, Prof. O.K. Chadda said that the Budget clearly shows that the Centre is seriousabout education. The overall allocation for the human resource development ministry has beenincreased by over 40 per cent from Rs 15,682 crores in the revised estimates of 2004-05 to Rs22,268 crores this year. Prof. B.B. Bhattacharya of the Institute of Economic Growth said thatmore funds have been allocated for education at all levels, clearly indicating that the Centre isserious about education. Educationists have appreciated the allocation of Rs 225 crores toensure quality education for girls by setting up about 750 residential schools with boardingfacilities. "Secondary education and higher education have been allocated more than last year'srevised Budget which shows that education is being taken seriously," said Prof. M. Bhatacharyaof JNU. The principal of Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Jhilmil, Mr D.S. Singh said that the allocationfor the mid-day meal programme, which has almost been doubled, will benefit lakhs of students.(Asian Age 1/3/05)Minority institutions cannot claim unfettered rights: counsel (11)NEW DELHI, MARCH 3. The minority institutions under Article 30 of the Constitution cannot claimunfettered rights to administer educational institutions of their choice as such rights would besubject to reasonable restrictions and regulations. Senior counsel K.K. Venugo-pal made thesubmission before a seven-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice, R.C.Lahoti. The Bench is hearing all issues relating to redefining the rights of minority and privatenon-minority unaided professional institutions. Appearing for the States of Kerala and WestBengal, and the All-India Council for Technical Education, Mr. Venugopal said that since the1980s the demand for seats in medical, dental, engineering and other professional colleges hadfar exceeded the total seats available. This resulted in commercialisation of professionaleducation. Seats were sold at mind-boggling amounts under the cover of Article 30 (right ofminorities to establish and administer educational institutions). While applying the rights underArticle 30 or Article 19 (1) (g) to professional colleges the need to prevent exploitation andcommercialisation of professional education was relevant, especially since a single person couldclaim the entirety of the right under Article 30 or Article 19 (1) (g) (to carry on any trade orbusiness). Such regulations would be justified for preventing maladministration in the case ofminority institution, as were relatable to the regulations under Article 19 (6) (reasonablerestrictions) in the case of non-minority institutions. (The Hindu 4/3/05)Pressure drives student to suicide (11)New Delhi: A 17-year-old Class XI student of Delhi Public School. Noida, committed suicide onFriday morning as he felt he would not do well in his just-concluded class XI examinations.Sudhanshu Pandey used his mother's saree to hang himself in his Vasundhara Enclaveresidence in East Delhi and left a suicide note stating that he was ending his life as he could notcope with the pressure of performing well any longer. The police said Sudhanshu's body wasdiscovered by his mother around 7.30 am. The boy, the third among four siblings, was hangingfrom the fan in his room. "His mother found him hanging in the bedroom, after she returned fromdropping off his younger brother to the bus stand where the school bus arrives," said deputycommissioner of police (east) Garima Bhatnagar. (Times of India 5/3/05)Gurgaon girl barred from boards (11)Gurgaon: A class X student of Grace Mission High School in Daya Vihar was not allowed to takeher board examination by authorities as Mamta had "inadequate attendance." Eighteen-year-oldMamta, however, allege that it was her complaint against the school with the police that led to this"victimisation." Mamta, who earlier studied in an Arya Samaj school in Lajpat Nagar was admittedto Grace Mission three years ago and stayed in the the children's home of the school along with900 children from the adjoining villages and slums. Mamta's mother, a widow, works as a maidservant in Kalkaji. Mamta was not allowed to enter the school premises on first day of the boardsexamination. She claimed: " The harassment and torture I was subjected to, inside the children's

home compelled me to file a complain in the crime against women's cell on September 20. Afterthat I was expelled from the hostel. It was not feasible for me to commute daily to Daya Vihar.Despite repeated requests, the 'hostel authorities did not relent." Mamta, however, regularly paidthe hostel as well as the medical fees. (Times of India 5/3/05)Modern touch to madarsas (11)Calcutta, March 6: Senior madarsas, which primarily teach theology and Arabic, will be broughtunder the integrated learning improvement programme of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a Centrestateinitiative aimed at achieving 100 per cent literacy in the 5-14 age group. The induction of thesenior madarsas into the Abhiyan will stem dropouts, said Abd-us Sattar, the president of theWest Bengal Board of Madarsa Education. The programme, introduced in Class I and continuedin the successive classes, involves a participatory approach in which the children are their ownteachers. Over 300,000 students attend the 102 senior madarsas, which teach Arabic, Islamictheology, history, culture and jurisprudence from Class I to the post-graduate level. Almost 60 percent of the students are girls, but the boys outdo them in the dropout rate as many quit after thefirst few years. Sattar said: "Most students in senior madarsas come from backward families andface several hurdles." A majority of those who drop out quit studies. "Some move to a junior highor high madarsa after the second or third standard," said a board official. In addition to Arabic andIslamic history and culture, the high and junior high madarsas impart general education beyondthe primary level. (Telegraph 7/3/05)Education for riot-affected kids opposed by some (11)Ahmedabad, March 8: Is it possible to create education out of discarded newspapers? A uniqueeffort is underway in Ahmedabad in the form of the "pasti project" to keep education of childrenfrom riot-affected Muslim and Dalit families going. But in a city where the caste and class divide isvery apparent, the project has not found currency with a section of the middle class which ispredominantly Hindu. The activists from the Centre for Development, a non-governmentalorganisation, who are running the project have faced some irate families refusing to part with theirmonthly load of pasti (discarded newspapers and other household wares) for the riot-affectedchildren. Some people have turned away the activists saying that they would do nothing forMuslims and Dalits. The NGO has rrianaged to get about 80 families into its fold through the"pasti project" to fund the education of these children. Under the project, the NGO has createdtwo-member teams each comprising of a Muslim and Dalit activist. The teams go to housesseeking waste every month. The families that agree to give their pasti are enrolled as membersand are expected to give the discarded newspapers every month. These newspapers are sold bythe NGO and the money from the sales is used to fund the education of the riot-affectedchildren. (Asian Age 9.3.05)Amity upset with Chhattisgarh govt (11)NEW DELHI, MARCH 8: A DAY after a few hundred Amity students refused to sit for their internalexaminations till the uncertainty created by the scrapping of the Chhattisgarh Private SectorUniversities (Regulation and Establishment) Act, 2002, is cleared, Amity authorities haveexpressed displeasure at the pace at which things are moving at the state government's end.The university is trying to procure validation through individual legislation by the ChhattisgarhAssembly. The university had initially claimed that the procedure would be "complete in amatter'of days". Amity group chairman Ashok Chauhan told Newsline: "I don't think the stategovernment is being able to perceive fully the extent of the effect this could have onimpressionable young minds. I am constantly in touch with them and have asked them to speedup the proceedings, but that has not really happened. Who will take the responsibility of a suicideor self-immolation attempt that can stem from the stalemate?" The University authorities havesent the Chhattisgarh government a report from senior Supreme Court advocate Rakesh Dwivedito speed up the process of individual legislation. The university has already refused to exercisethe option of affiliation to Chhattisgarh state universities. On Monday, some 500 Amity studentswent on a rampage at the Noida campus following the mass refusal to sit for examinations. A fewdays ago, students of Rai University had also staged demonstrations demanding that thesituation be resolved. (Indian Express 9/3/05)

Mulayam bill to make student unions a must (11)Lucknow, March 12: The Mulayam Singh government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to makecompulsory the formation of students' unions in all recognised degree colleges and universities ofthe state. A bill to this effect will be tabled in the state Assembly on Monday. According tosources, once the bill is passed by the state legislature, it will be mandatory for all degreecolleges and recognised universities to constitute students' unions and hold election to suchunions in September-October every year. It is noteworthy that elections to students unions hadbeen banned by the BJP government in 1998 after widespread violence was seen in severalunion elections. However, as soon as the Samajwadi Party came to power, it issued agovernment order reviving the unions. Some degree colleges, however, went to court andobtained a ban on students' unions. With the new bill, however, it will now be mandatory for alldegree colleges and universities to have elected unions for students and the government will alsoreserve the ' right to withhold grants to those institutions that do not have students' unions.The move, according to observers, is designed to specifically pamper the student communityacross the state, since most teachers and parents are opposed to union activities amongstudents. (Asian Age 13/3/05)Derecognised institutes may get IP affiliation (11)New Delhi, March 15: Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University has decided to come to therescue of thousands of students affected by the Supreme Court's ruling, according to which, anumber of private universities in Chattisgarh, many of which have offshore centres, were declared"unconstitutional". The government concern has since then been centred aroundways to secure the future of the thousands of students enrolled with these now-defunctuniversities. Many of these students are enrolled in study centres being run by those universitiesin other states. The National Capital Region of Delhi accounts for a large number of theseoffshore students. To assist these students, IP University vice-chancellor K.K. Aggarwal, followingconsultations with the Delhi government and Union human resources development ministry, hasdecided to consider the centres of these defunct universities functioning in the National CapitalRegion for affiliation. "These centres will be granted affiliation only if they meet the IP University'sstandards," Mr Aggarwal made it clear. To avail of this chance to gain recognition, the defunctuniversities can apply to IP University seeking affiliation for their centres latest by March 31.(Asian Age 16/3/050)Bill on Urdu varsity passed in UP (11)Lucknow, March 18: 1\\er controversial Mohammed AH Jauhar University Bill was passed by theUP Assembly on Friday, giving a new twist to the prolonged battle over the issue between RajBhavan and the state government. A bill for the same university had been passed by the statelegislature last year, but the governor held back his assent to the same since he objected to theappointment of Mohammed Azam Khan as pro-chancellor for life in the proposed university. Thegovernor finally referred the bill to the President, which made the Samajwadi-led coalitiongovernment mount a scathing attack on Raj Bhavan. With the Congress also opposing the bill,the Samajwadi Party accused the governor of dancing to the Congress' tune, which furtherworsened relations between Raj Bhavan and the state government. The state governmentremained defiant on the issue and finally moved a private university bill for the same university.The new bill, passed by the Assembly on Friday by a voice vote, does not mention MohammedAzam Khan's name for the pro-chancellor's post for life. Instead, the bill says that the chancellorof the university shall be the head of the Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar Trust or as may bedecided by the trust from time to time. (Asian Age 19/3/05)Education plan for special kids (11)New Delhi, March 21: THE GOVERNMENT on Monday revealed an ambitious plan to make allschools disabled friendly by 2020. This means that a disabled child will be able to attend regularschool which will be fully equipped to cater to his/her educational needs. Here is the planannounced by Union HRD minister Arjun Singh in Rajya Sabha: Besides having barrier-freeaccess, ail educational institutions will have Braille books, talking text books, reading machines

and computers with speech software. Every school will also have sign language interpreters andtranscription services. The main objectives of the plan are to ensure that no child is deniedmainstream education and no child is turned away on grounds of disability. A group has alreadybeen set up under the NCERT to examine what is required to educate "children with specialneeds," said Singh. An MoU has been signed to strengthen the disability element in the syllabusof teacher training courses too. Selected schools will be converted into model inclusive schools todemonstrate "what is necessary and more importantly, what is possible," Singh said. (HindustanTimes 22/3/05)How schools left poor out in cold (11)NEW DELHI, MARCH 22: THE Delhi government was today forced to table a status report on theminimum 20 per cent free seats that Delhi’s public schools are to make available for the poor.This was in response to a question by two MLAs. The report exposed the government’s claimsthat the schools had fallen in line. The 61-page report gave details of 1,139 public schools for theacademic year 2004-05. About half of these schools (572) have not complied with the quota —about half have done it partially and rest not at all. The Delhi High Court had on January 20 lastyear asked the government to ensure that public schools fulfilled the land lease condition ofadmitting poor children. Delhi government’s Directorate of Education had accordingly issued anorder to all schools on April 27 for compliance from May 1. But then the government watered thisdown by saying that the schools ought to take 20 per cent of all ‘new’ admissions. ThoughEducation Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely had claimed the government was implementing thequota, there are 259 schools which didn’t admit a single poor child. Also, there is no informationfrom 189 schools. These include prominent ones like Modern School (Barakhamba Road), StColumba’s School, Delhi Public School (R K Puram) and Mother’s International. (Indian Express23/3/05)NCERT peddles old history in old bottles (11)New Delhi: AFTER TRASHING the books published during the NDA regime and declaring that itwould introduce new textbooks in the academic session 2005-06, the National Council ofEducational Research and Training (NCERT) has had to climb down considerably and fall backon pre-2002 textbooks, which NCERT Director Prof Krishna Kumar had once termed"frustrating". Soon after the UPA Government came to power, Union HRD Minister Arjun Singhhad said that a new set of textbooks would be printed and introduced in the schools from theacademic year 2005-06. But the NCERT has failed to meet the deadline and the new books areyet to be written. Under the circumstances, the NCERT director has now decided to bring backthe pre-2002 texts, which he himself had once run down as "frustrating experience for students".The Council now states that new textbooks would only be introduced after the National SteeringCommittee submits its report. The report will be tabled in the Central Advisory Board ofEducation, which will later pass on the approved report back to the NCERT. The NCERT will thenform a panel of authors to write a new set of history texts. This whole process would need at leastanother year, something, which the minister obviously did not take into account while making histall claims in 2004. A senior NCERT official said: "The Council did not have much time in handlast year to select a new panel of authors and then publish a new set of history textbooks as thedecision to introduce new textbooks was made in late July 2004. Meanwhile, the NationalSteering Committee was set up in November 2004, so the Council decided to introduce the newset of textbooks following the recommendations of the steering committee." (Pioneer 24/3/05)Madrasas: Many innovations on the cards (11)New Delhi: March 24. — Makhtabs' and Madrasas' religious education will now be brought underthe domain of formal education under the ambitious 'Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternate& Innovate Education'. Apart from Urdu, other mediums of instruction will also be used to teachthese students. Special courses will be used to bridge the gap between these students and thosestudying in the public schools of Delhi. Starting with the basic education programme includingreligious texts, students will later be imparted formal education. Teachers from Madrasas will begiven refresher courses to equip them with formal education curriculum. With special emphasis

on girl students, separate centres have been proposed in localities of these communities wherethey will be initially taught condensed courses. Once achieving the appropriate level, thesestudents will be admitted to the formal schools till they complete elementary education.The scheme will also be extended to students who are completely isolated from education andare involved in small chores as well as other works, to supplement family incomes. With a newflexible approach, the policy plans to tab all these students just left-out from the educationmedium. As per the last survey, there were 92,000 children including dropouts, who discontinuedtheir education in Delhi. Now to implement this latest initiative in full swing, a new survey hasbeen proposed to determine the exact numbers and academic base of such students. In theCapital, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be conducting it in association with the DelhiGovernment. (Statesman 25/3/05)Correspondence course students suffer discrimination (11)NEW DELHI, April 2. — With just a couple of days left for the exam, some of the studentsstudying in the commerce stream at the School of Correspondence of the Delhi University are aconfused lot. About 250 students in the School of Open Learning (correspondence) opted for PartC which includes practical exam. There are 65 colleges under DU that offer the Bachelor ofCommerce course and these college have infrastructure to support practical classes that areoffered in Part C. However, before any college offers Part C course to its students, acommunication is made to the department of Commerce and Business. The department nowaccuses School of Open Learning, of not informing them about students opting for part C.Officials of correspondence department, however, claim that the university is denying studentsfrom part C course because of the alleged discrimination between correspondence and regularcourse. "When we wrote to them a week back about the matter they told us that practical coursescannot be offered to students of correspondence courses," said a teacher in SOL. Department ofCommerce and Business denies these allegations. "Only those colleges that have the capacity tohold practical classes are given the permission. Moreover, the correspondence department neverinformed us about these students. We could not allow them to hold practical exams for them,"said the head of the department of Commerce and Business, professor S R Khanna. Thedepartment held a meeting on 1 April to decide on the future of the students. In all the chaos, it isthe students who are suffering the most. "We have decided that students will be given a theorypaper instead of practical. In part C, there are 20 per cent marks for practical and we will try thatthe students do not suffer," added professor Khanna. (Statesman 3/4/05)Sarva Shiksha ambit may include Class 10 (11)New Delhi, April 2: There are indications that Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) mission that currentlyhas only primary classes in its ambit may be extended up to Class 10. According to sources, theplan panel has made strong recommendation for the approaching mid-term appraisal or MTA toconsider extension of the SSA mission up to Class 10 by promoting public-private partnership orelse through setting up a new mission for secondary education on the lines of the SSA. The planpanel thinks that with the successful implementation of the SSA, there will be increased demandfor secondary education. According to the estimates derived by the Planning Commission, if theSSA achieves its goal of full retention of students or close to it, the secondary school enrolment ispoised to shoot up from 2.18 crore in 2003-04 to approximately 5 crore by 2011. Since the privatesector has a large share in secondary schools, the panel finds it important to recognise the scopeof public-private partnership for the expansion of secondary schooling. The panel also wants theprivate schools, which are given concessional facilities, to provide admission to deservingstudents from low income families with financial support. Though the panel shows satisfactionover the improvement in increasing enrolment and decreasing drop out rates in primaryeducation, it feels that there is need to improve the pre-service and in-service training of teachersand availability of teaching. (Asian Age 3/4/05)NCERT takes lessons from principals, teachers (11)NEW DELHI, APRIL 4. Looking at reducing the increasing burden on students, the NationalCouncil of Educational Research and Training today held a meeting with principals of variousschools from across the Capital. This is a part of the ongoing review exercise of the National

material. On May 17, the ministry sent a letter to the NIOS director M Panth asking him to explainwhy the NIOS had included books like Bharatiya Sanskriti Ke Poshak, Deen Dayal Upadhyay(Deen Dayal Upadhyay, a patron of Indian Culture) and Ek Nirbeek Evam Sachhe Deshbhakt, DrShyama Prasad Mookerjee (A fearless and True Patriot, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee). TheNIOS authorities replied that they had ordered a complete review of the syllabus last year inDecember and it was taking time. Besides, they had ordered the removal of these books inFebruary and the stores would be free of them in some time. (Indian Express 2/6/05)One lakh students given grace marks to pass in Gujarat (11)Gandhinagar: IN A record of sorts, more than one lakh students were given grace marks of up to25 to boost Gujarat's Senior Secondary Certificate (SSC) results from 40.76 per cent to 56.18 percent. "Grace marks have been given to 1,02,060 students," said Hasmukh Hingu, chairman of theGujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary education board. Notwithstanding this patchwork toshore up education, state education minister Anandiben Patel expressed satisfaction with theresults saying that it was an improvement of 3.49 per cent over the previous year in 400 schools.Altogether 6,61,680 students had appeared for the board examinations of which 3,72,403 passedand 54168 secured distinction. This liberal approach was perhaps the reason why the first 10positions in the state were shared by 34 students with two students each sharing the third, fourthand sixth positions, with 95.57, 95.43 and 95.14 per cent respectively. The girls seemed to havedone better than the boys with 64.39 per cent of them passing as against 59.49 per cent boysand English medium students performed likewise with 88.14 per cent as against 54.8 per cent inthe Gujarati medium schools. Board sources admit that the normal practice is that borderlinecases are given upto 15 grace marks to enable them to get through but this time things werecarried to ludicrous levels, with grace marks going up to 25 and covering a broad sweep of over alakh students. "If students continue to be promoted en masse to keep the parental votebankingratiated to the party in power , the standard of college education will suffer," said a formerdirector of education. (Pioneer 2/6/05)NCERT softens syllabus. Govt’s call now (11)New Delhi, June 2: YOUR CHILD could get marks in school for learning Bharatanatyam orKathak from a guru; children may not have to study in English medium - even in public schools -for the first three years of their school lives; their overall syllabus load could be substantiallylowered, with emphasis on greater interaction between teacher and child. These are some of theproposals that the HRD Ministry will place before the Central Advisory Board on Education forconsideration and approval on June 7. The meeting will discuss changes in the NCERT'sNational Curriculum Framework on which school syllabi and textbooks are designed.The NCERT's National Steering Committee has suggested many changes to give Indianeducation a more inclusive shape. "We've said we must look at the whole of India when writingsyllabi and books," Professor Yashpal, chairperson of the committee, told HT. "All sections ofsociety must be accounted for." Sources said recommendations include a drastic reduction in thevolume of syllabus and focus on self-learning. A school could pick up on any event affecting thearea and different aspects of the issue could be taken up in all classes - be they history, scienceor language classes. A member of the National Steering Committee said: "The prevalent norm isfor children to separate learning from life and learning from school. Knowledge in this segregatedmanner becomes useless." (Hindustan Times 3/6/05)Tamil Nadu scraps common entrance test (11)CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Government has abolished the Common Entrance Test (CET) foradmission to medical and engineering courses from this year. According to a new policyannounced by Chief Minister Jaya-lalithaa on Monday, admissions to professional courses will,hereafter, be made solely on the basis of marks obtained in the Plus Two examination and therule of reservation. The new policy covers admissions to B.E, B.Tech, B Arch and allied courses,M.B.B.S, B.D.S, B.Pharm and allied courses, B.Sc (Agriculture) and allied courses, B.VSc, B.Land all other professional courses for which entrance examinations were hitherto held. There willbe no addition of entrance examination marks for entering professional courses. Also, the

practice of allowing students to take improvement examinations has been discontinued. However,the single window system of counselling for professional courses will continue and counsellingsessions will start as per the earlier schedule in July. Terming the policy as a "simple,straightforward and transparent system," Ms. Jayalalithaa said, in a press release, that the needfor the policy arose as "the CET has now become a traumatic experience for parents and childrenas it appears to determine at one stroke the future of the child. ... In particular, students from ruralareas are affected as the entrance examination operates against their chances to gain admission.If the Plus Two marks alone are relied upon, rural students would stand to get their due share inadmissions." (The Hindu 7/6/05)Saffron vs Red battle at education meet (11)NEW DELHI, June 6. — It could well be a "Saffron versus Red" confrontation at the StateEducation. Ministers' meeting in' the Capital tomorrow with the BJP contending that the newtextbooks brought out by NCERT are the "very same" authored earlier by "Leftist writers"After initial uncertainty, the BJP-ruled states finally decided to attend the meeting of the CentralAdvisory Board of Education (CABE) where the chief ministers are expected to discuss the newcurriculum for final approval. Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, the former HRD minister, who was accusedof "saffronising" the education system, now sees "red" in the curriculum, saying the new booksare the work of "Leftist writers". He said education ministers of BJP-ruled states — Chhattisgarh,Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajastahan -would attend the CABE meet, being chairedby the HRD minister, Mr Arjun Singh. Dr Joshi, emerging from a meeting with the educationministers of these states, accused the UPA government of "destroying" the education system inthe country. He said the. Congress was pursuing a "divisive" education policy-He said educationministers of BJP-ruled states except Jharkhand who are attending the meeting would raise theseissues. He also alleged that BJP-ruled states' ministers were not given the required 15-day noticefor attending the meeting. Nor did the documents reach them in time, he said. (Statesman 7/6/05)History books sell briskly (11)New Delhi, June 9: Leader of the Opposition Lal Krishna Advani may not have had much successin exorcising the ghost of Jinnah just yet or in convincing his extended Parivar comprising theRSS and the VHP about the secular credentials of the founder of Pakistan, but historians aregame for a debate. The cascading effect of Mr Advani's comment on Jinnah could also be seen inthe way the sale of titles on Jinnah have picked up lately, as backroom boys and speechwriterspour over tomes to come up with talking points for their political masters. The vice-chancellor ofJamia Millia Islamia, Prof. Mushirul Hasan, sees in the whole controversy an opportunity to raisethe level of debate on such issues and to introduce a reappraisal of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's rolein the nationalist movement. "Rhetorical questions like whether Jinnah was secular or not createmore confusion than clarity," he told this newspaper. "We should instead ask about his role andlegacy and try to locate Jinnah in the right perspective," Prof. Hasan contended. "His role shouldbe discussed in the context of the colonial government. We have not looked at what extent thecolonial government created a Jinnah of the 1940s, which was different from the Jinnah of the1920s and 1930s," he explained. Asserting that the terms of reference need to be recalibrated,Prof. Hasan said: "We should stop idealising or demonising of Jinnah." Another top historian,Prof. Irfan Habib, observed that it is difficult to say whether Jinnah was non-communal becausehe was also a nationalist. "His demand for Pakistan may be communal but we must not forget hewas also a lieutenant of Gokhale," he said. Prof. Arjun Dev, in turn, observed that it was not anew discovery that Jinnah was a secular, liberal person for most of his life. (Asian Age 10/6/05)Rajasthan won't implement UPA Govt. curriculum (11)JAIPUR: Barely two days after the Education Ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruledStates boycotted a conclave convened in New Delhi to discuss the draft National CurriculumFramework (NCF), the Rajasthan Minister of State for Education, Vasudeo Devnani, announcedon Thursday that the State would not implement any curriculum "imposed" by the UnitedProgressive Alliance Government at the Centre. The general body meeting of the NCERT calledto discuss the NCF in New Delhi on June 7 had decided that all the States would be given time tillthe first week of August to consider and formulate their response to the NCF before sending in

their suggestions so that the process of preparing the syllabus could be set in motion. Even asthe Central Government tried to counter the charge that an attempt was being made to pushthrough the NCF without consultation, a large number of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishadactivists entered the venue, Vigyan Bhavan, in a bid to disrupt the meeting and indulged inviolence while demanding that the textbooks introduced during the National Democratic Allianceregime be brought back. Mr. Devnani, flagging off the first consignment of free textbooks at theRajasthan Secondary Education Board's book godown in Ajmer, said since education was citedas a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, the State Government had a right tointroduce the syllabus which in its view "inculcates among the children self-confidence and pridein the ancient history of India". The Minister affirmed that only that curriculum on which both theState Government and the State Secondary Education Board had unanimity would beimplemented for the secondary and senior secondary classes in Rajasthan. "Reforms do notnecessarily mean a mere change. They have a wider connotation of institutional remodelling," hesaid while referring to the Board's functioning. (The Hindu 10/6/05)]ICHR plans to 'erase' all -'errors' from Gandhi book (11)New Delhi: Taking a wide sweep of history, the Indian Council of Historical Research has decidedto invoke the memory of two great figures Akbar and Mahatma. While in case of Akbar, ICHRplans to commemorate his 400th death anniversary through a series of seminars and workshops,for Gandhi the council has decided to intervene in the matter concerning mistakes in therecent editing of the Collected Wbrfcs of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG). In the council's recentmeeting, historian Shahid Amin moved the resolution expressing concern with the manner inwhich the original scheme of arrangement of CWMG was recast in 1998 i and numerous itemsconnected with Gandhi were deleted. The council felt that such "tinkering was uncalled for"and suggested in detail a method to overcome the problem. Though CWMG is culture ministry'sbaby, the council has asked for setting up of a representative committee of historians/scholarswith core competence in historical research and Gandhi's life and works. This committee wouldprepare a list of items excluded from the original edition and as a first step ensure that theseare published in a separate volume and put on the web. (Times of India 10/6/05)BJP problem for UPA: Education for all but how?( 11)NEW DELHI, JUNE 10: UNIVERSAL compulsory education-the only element of the NDAeducation policy which has survived Ar-jun Singh's detoxification drive - has also got stuck. Thereason: the government is at wits end trying to evolve a method to implement this policy, ifeducation is to be every child's fundamental right. The sub-committee set up for the purpose, itseems, has not been able to evolve a consensus. "It has been given time till the end of this monthso that a comprehensive report can be formulated through agreement," an HRD Ministry officialsaid. The sub-committee, which is headed by Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, theMinistry officials admit, has to perform a balancing act. Not only will it have to find concrete waysto finance the policy, it will also have to take into account the socio-economic conditions of thestudents, especially those who drop-out even before reaching Class V Sources said there issome disagreement over the manner in which children who work are to be treated under thescheme, if it is to become an offence not to send your kid to school. Or if it is a fundamental rightof every child up to to the age of 14 years to get education. (Indian Express 11/6/05)Chhattisgarh govt to ban new NCERT books (11)Chhattisgarh government has decided to ban books under a newly proposed syllabus of theNational Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), saying it was an attempt bythe centre to twist historical facts. "The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government wants tocreate controversy as the proposed NCERT books, set to hit the stalls from next year's academicsession, have several misguiding chapters," School Education Minister Rajesh Munat told IANS."I will not allow the books to even land in Chhattisgarh", he said. Adding that "The centralgovernment is adamant on the inclusion of some chapters in history books on Lord Mahavira,who has been described in the proposed syllabus as a 'misguided figure', and Jats, who havebeen called 'plunderers'. How can I allow students to go against basic historical facts?" theminister remarked. He alleged that there were some objectionable remarks about the Sikh

community as well. The NCERT books will be implemented in Chhattisgarh only if the"controversial references dropped", he said. The Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE)meeting held last week in Delhi to approve the new curriculum framework was stormy asministers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states opposed it and said textbooks introducedby the previous National Democratic Alliance government should be brought back. (Pioneer14/6/05)State-level educational body for minorities suggested (11)HYDERABAD: The Chairman of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions(NCMEI), M.A.S. Siddiqui, has highlighted the need for a State-level commission or a functionalnetwork along the lines of the University Grants Commission and National Council for EducationalResearch and Training (NCERT) to address educational concerns of the minorities. Mr. Siddiquisaid he would recommend to the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, to constitute`madrassa' boards for an integrated development of minority educational institutions. He alsosought setting up of one more scheduled university to add to the existing six such universities forthe minorities. Questions of the enforceability of Article 30 of the Constitution, affiliation ofminority institutions, true state of minority institutions and more powers to the commissions weresuggested at the meeting of the NCMEI with educationists organised by the Forum for Equity andJustice here on Tuesday. The Dean, Faculty of Law, Osmania University, Ahmedulla Khan,suggested modifying the NCMEI Act to empower the commission to authorise universities togrant minority affiliations to different colleges and institutions. (The Hindu 15/6/05, IN)Minority panel calls on YSR (11)HYDERABAD: The Chairman of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions,M.S.A. Siddiqui, has urged the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, to include at least threeuniversities, one in each region of the State, under the Minority Educational Institutions Act.The Chairman, along with members -- B. S. Ramoo Walia and Valsom Thampu -- called on theChief Minister at the Secretariat on Tuesday. The commission chief complimented Dr. Reddy forthe welfare measures taken up for the benefit of minorities. Justice Siddiqui said under the Actany minorities' educational institutions would get affiliation easily. Dr. Reddy promised to examinethe proposal. The commission also urged the Chief Minister to establish a Board for Madrasaeducation. The members felt that apart from imparting traditional education, there was a need tomodernise the Madrasas. A Madrasa Board would go a long way for a coordinated and integrateddevelopment, they added. The Chief Minister agreed to examine the proposal. The commissionSecretary, Ranganath, the Secretary, School Education, P. Krishnaiah, and the Director of SchoolEducation, K. Ramakrishna, were present. (The Hindu 15/6/05, IN)Do madrasas really promote terror? (11)New Delhi, June 15: The madrasas has been given the kind of treatment in mainline media allaround world that would be justified if exclusively reserved for al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden. Yet,the Muslim religious schools have been held responsible for keeping the terror network fuelledwith new recruits and, according to them, the future of democracy has been put under questionmark by their activities. That is the long and short of the general view of the contribution thatthese schools have made to humanity, in recent years. However, most of the people spoutingthese accusations did not bother to visit any of these madrasas, neither did they actually talk toanyone concerned or knowledgeable on the subject. What sufficed for them was to see terror inJammu & Kashmir, in the Middle East, a 9/11 in the recent past and it was enough to send themup like an incendiary rocket raining rhetoric behind them.Ekal Vidyalayas to increase count to 1 lakh (11)New Delhi, June 18: The RSS-backed Ekal Vidyalaya, growing rapidly over the years, is all set toincrease its strength from over 14,000 schools to one lakh in the next five years. The EkalVidyalaya group is being heavily financed by NRIs, particularly from the United States, UnitedKingdom, and Australia. The brand ambassador for the group is "dream girl" and BJP RajyaSabha member, Hema Malini. "I am glad to accept the offer to be the brand ambassador of EkalVidyalaya Foundation of India," said Ms Malini. The so-called "ekal movement" is also aimed at

making tribals aware of their "cultural heritage and organised so that nobody would dare to thinkof exploiting them. The EVF appeared to be confident of reaching the target of one lakh schoolsin the next five years, following "overwhelming enthusiasm of eminent industrialists involved inthis movement." Through its website, Ekalvidya.org, the group claims that one of the ways tosupport the vidyalaya is by adopting them. And the cost for "adoption" is only $365 a year."You can adopt an Ekal Vidyalaya for only $ one a day ($365 a year)," the website says. For UK,the cost of adoption for a year include £250 and in Australia it is 480 Australian dollar. In India, aschool can be adopted for Rs 15,000 a year. (Indian Express 19/6/05)Plan panel: Nightmare looms (11)New Delhi, June 25: The Planning Commission has warned of a looming education nightmare.Ironically, the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan - the campaign to bring primary education toall - will be to blame. Here is the problem. If the abhiyan achieves its goals even in "near fullmeasure" there will be too many children passing out of primary schools and too few secondaryschools in the country to take them in. The problem is mentioned in the mid-term appraisal of theTenth Plan. The Planning Commission's appraisal of the 2002-2007 plan will be placed forratification before the National Development Council at its two day-meeting, beginning onMonday. Three hours have been set aside on the first day of the NDC meeting for discussingeducation. Though the Planning Commission has expressed concern over issues like teachingquality in the Abhiyan started by the NDA government, it acknowledges that the primaryeducation mission has "already led to visible improvements in indicators like enrolment ratios anddropout rates." But it warns: "With the successful implementation of the SSA, there will beincreased demand for secondary education." The SSA aim is to make sure that all children ofprimary school-going age (6-14 years) are enrolled and are retained in schools. The PlanningCommission says: "If the SSA achieves the goals of retention in full, or near full measure, thesecondary school enrolment is poised to shoot up from 2.18 crore in 2002-03 to approximatelyfive crore by 2011." Planning Commission's advice to the government is this: set up a newmission for secondary education, "on the lines of the SSA."(Asian age 26/6/05)Minister defends no to NCERT course (11)JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Education Minister, Ghanshyam Tiwari, on Sunday justified the StateGovernment's decision to introduce the Yoga education in schools from the new academicsession and not to implement the curriculum recommended by the NCERT, saying education wasmentioned in the concurrent list of the Constitution and the Centre should consult the Statesbefore taking any major step in this regard. Mr. Tiwari, addressing a Press conference here, saidRajasthan had become the first State in the country to bring in Yoga education in accordance withthe recommendations of the National Focus Group and pointed out that the Parliament hadadopted a resolution in 1986 in favour of promoting Yoga as an indigenous discipline. Masteryoga trainers A State-level Yoga training camp was organised at Dr. Radhakrishnan ShikshaSankul here from June 16 to 22 to educate about 1,500 master trainers who will give instructionsin schools from the academic session beginning next month. Mr. Tiwari, while expressing thehope that other States would follow suit, said the Yoga education would help the children evolvesound mind in a healthy body. Referring to the new curriculum recommended by the NCERT, Mr.Tiwari said it was formulated "under the influence of Leftist historians and sociologists" who weretrying to "denigrate the national heroes and falsify ancient history". "We cannot teach from thebooks that refer to Lord Ram and Krishna as imaginary figures and distort history to createtension between various sections and belittle the pride in our past," he said. (The Hindu 27/6/05)Court quashes Jaya entrance test order (11)CHENNAI, JUNE 27: The Madras High Court today quashed the Tamil Nadu Government's June9 order abolishing the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admissions to medical and engineeringcolleges, dubbing it ''unconstitutional'' and ''illegal''. The order is a setback for the Jayalalithaagovernment which had hoped to score some brownie points in the run-up to next year's Assemblyelections. The CM had done away with the entrance test earlier this month saying it workedagainst rural students. She said these students tend to do well in board examinations and are

favourably placed when selection for professional courses is based solely on performance in suchexaminations. Jayalalithaa's order laid down that results of qualifying Class 12 examinationswould be the sole basis for selection. But a High Court division bench comprising Chief JusticeMarkandey Katju and Justice F M Ibrahim Kalifulla today said it was "illegal" to do away withentrance tests when there were several examining boards like the CBSE and state highersecondary board. Allowing a batch of more than 400 writ petitions challenging the governmentorder, the bench ruled that the order violated the selection criteria fixed in the regulations of theMedical Council of India and the All India Council for Technical Education for admissions tomedical and engineering courses. It also violated Article 14 of the Constitution, the 56-page ordersaid. The state government had ''totally abandoned and given a go by'' to the method prescribedby the regulations which had statutory force, the bench said. The TN government order''encroached on a field already occupied by central regulations, and hence, it was illegal,'' thejudges added. (Asian Age 28/6/05)Now Parivar backs college swap (11)BHOPAL, JUNE 29: The BJP government may be denying that it has a ''hidden agenda'' behind theswapping of the buildings of MLB Girls College and Hamidia Arts and Commerce College but theRSS and Bajrang Dal make no bones about it. The two members of the Sangh Parivar claim that439 Hindu girls in Bhopal have converted to Islam in the past eight years and 90 per cent of themare from the MLB Girl's College! They quote a ''confidential inquiry'' carried out by the state CID,reportedly on the orders of the BJP government. The city chief of the Bajrang Dal, Devendra Rawat,claims that a majority of these cases are from MLB College where girl students have been forced toconvert to Islam. RSS city chief Kantilal Chatar backs this claim. Rawat says the Sangh had askedthe government last year to carry out an inquiry into the allegations of conversions following whichthe CID had done a survey. ''The figures we are quoting are from the CID records,'' Rawat told TheIndian Express. He, however, says he isn't aware of the identity of the girls. Higher EducationMinister Uma Shankar Gupta, the man behind the swapping order, describes the claims asbaseless. ''The state government has done no such survey. Our decision to swap the colleges waspurely for the safety of the girl students and because of commuting problems being faced by somestudents,'' he says. When it was pointed out that the swapping could ruin the career of Muslim girlswho cannot afford to go to the new place, Gupta said ''they can take admission in Hamidia College.''Social activist trash these statements. ''The minister should remember that Hamidia is a co-edcollege and not many parents would like to send their girls there,'' says activist Abdul Jabbar. Theallegation of conversions is scoffed at by people. ''It's rubbish. We were there for more than 20years and nobody came to us with such a complaint. It's a disastrous decision and such moves willonly erode established institutions,'' says Prof Deepika Bagchi, who was a member of the originalfaculty at MLB College. Her colleague, a Botany professor at the college, Qamar Zameer, adds: ''Ifsecurity of the girls is being cited as the reason, then intensified vigil instead of swapping thecollege premises would be enough.'' A former English professor at Hamidia College, Dr SamiullahKhan, is equally indignant. ''If the government continues to buckle under pressure from the SanghParivar, institutions will continue to die fast,'' he remarks. (Indian Exp. 30/6/05)Arjun's new test: Crack the whip on Bengal (11)NEW DELHI, JUNE 30: It promises to be a tough balancing act for HRD Minister Arjun Singh inKolkata next week. With the UPA scrambling to placate the Left on disinvestment and fuel prices,the Congress veteran may have to haul up the Left Front's West Bengal government for takingover three years to fill less than 25 per cent of sanctioned school teachers' posts. More so, whenhis Ministry is applauding Bihar Governor Buta Singh's recruitment drive that filled nearly 50,000teachers' vacancies in less than three months. In West Bengal, the Centre had sanctioned 73,536teachers' posts between 2002 and 2005 under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan. But figures availabletill March 31, 2005, suggest that the state has been able to recruit only 17,018 teachers. On histwo-day visit starting Sunday, Singh is expected to point this out among other deficiencies in theWest Bengal system, including lack of coordination between the Education Department andPanchayati Raj bodies, which run the schools. Besides, the state government has reportedserious underutilisation of funds in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan-of Rs 877 crore released last fiscal,

only Rs 509 crore were spent, a poor 58 per cent. Among other issues that Singh is expected totake up with the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government is the state's ''lack of initiative'' to upgradeits ''cheaper alternative schools'' to regular school status. The Centre is waiting with funds, sayofficials, but the state has not even communicated the amount it requires. At the other end isBihar, say officials, from where a phenomenal change has been reported since February-a courtcase that had stalled recruitment for almost two years was cleared in late January. Earlier thisweek, the Bihar education officials were here to plead for more funds because they have alreadyrecruited 50,000 teachers. (IE 1/7/05)Study on school dropouts (11)VILLUPURAM: A study will be conducted in all villages in Villupuram district from July 1 to collectdata on the school-going age children. In this task, 8,000 teachers would be deployed, accordingto Ka. Balachandran, District Collector. In a statement here on Thursday, the Collector noted thatthe teachers would visit 6.35-lakh households to gather details about the school-going agechildren (but who are out of schools) and dropouts. Based on the study results, the educationpolicy would be reviewed for providing adequate number of schools, basic amenities etc., For thecandidates who had discontinued their studies (from first to fifth standards), four months' trainingwould be given and later depending upon their eligibility they would be enrolled in regularschools. (The Hindu 1/7/05)Chhattisgarh readies another legislation (11)Raipur: CHHATTISGARH GOVERNMENT has decided to enact a new legislation for allowing theprivate universities in the State. This was decided in a cabinet meeting on Thursday evening.TheHigher Education Minister Ajay Chandrakar told newsmen here that a cabinet meeting approvedthe draft legislation. The legislation will be brought for discussions during the forthcomingmonsoon session of the State Assembly beginning from July 11. The decision to enact a freshlegislation comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court decision earlier this year in Februarywhich had declared the Chhattisgarh Private Universities Act 2002, as null and void. The Act wasenacted during previous Congress regime. Following the Court's order 112 private universities inthe State ceased to exit. Giving details of the provisions in the proposed bill, Chandrakar said thatthe interested organisations would have to deposit a sum of Rs 1 crore for setting up universitiesin scheduled areas and Rs 3 crore in the general areas. Besides, he said the institutions wouldhave to satisfy the State Universities' Regulatory Commission about its infrastructure, coursesand other facilities. Chandrakar said that the University Grants Commission (UGC) would also beinvited to hold inspection of the private universities. If the institutions abide by the requirement,the State Government will enact separate legislation to recognise each university, he said.(Pioneer 8/7/05)Urdu council next on Arjun’s detox agenda (11)New Delhi, July 7: The UPA government’s detoxification campaign has now touched the NationalCouncil for the Promotion of Urdu, that was active during the NDA regime. The government onWednesday announced an enquiry committee to probe the affairs of the council. Last month, theCPI(M) newspaper had published a scathing piece article against the council’s agenda during theNDA-rule. The probe is being seen as part of human resources development minister ArjunSingh’s detoxification drive to rid educational bodies of RSS-influence. The Opposition maintainsit is political vendetta. The enquiry committee, headed by journalist and social activist D.R. Goyal,will submit its report within three months. Other members of the panel are retired Aligarh MuslimUniversity professor Iftiquar Alman Khan, journalist Javed Naqvi and Delhi University professorRamakant Agnihotri. The committee has been asked to look into the functioning of the council "interms of its mandate" and probe if there has been any departure from it. It will also see if theutilisation of resources allocated to the council within the last five years were in consistence withthe mandate. CPI(M) mouthpiece People’s Democracy argued in its June 12 issue that thecouncil found its "agenda reversed and geared for serving the RSS political interests during thetenure of (then HRD minister) Murli Manohar Joshi." Gently chiding Mr Arjun Singh, the People’sDemocracy said, "It needs hardly be emphasised that the new minister has not yet managed toundo what Mr Joshi accomplished." (Asian Age 8/7/05)

Rally on education (11)MADURAI: Hundreds of school students took out a rally in the city on Friday as part of the drivefor `Education for All' and enrolment of children in the age group of 5 to 14 years at regularschools. The rally was organised by the School Education Department in which 300 volunteers ofNational Service Scheme (NSS) from various schools participated to create public awarenessabout education. C. Shenbagam, District Educational Officer of Madurai Educational District andS.Subbayan, DEO of Usilampatti Educational District, addressed participants in the rally that wentfrom the office of Chief Educational Officer to the Collectorate via Gandhi Museum. The officialsurged the public to identify if there were any school dropouts or children between 5 and 14 years,who have not joined schools. Another rally : Another student rally was taken out by the MaduraiNorth Range of the education department to emphasise the importance of public role in studentenrolment in schools. The city Corporation Commissioner, D.J.Dinakkaren, flagged off the rally inthe presence of officials from the education department and Lions Clubs. According to S.Madhavan, Assistant Educational Officer-North Range, the thrust of the campaign was`Education for All' and parents in rural areas were being told to send the children to regularschools. (The Hindu 9/7/05)Denial of certificates to rural students criticised (11)TUMKUR: Several students in Pavagada of Tumkur district are in a fix as the Pavagada talukauthorities are denying them certificates that state that they have studied in rural schools. SogaduVenkatesh, leader of the opposition in the Pavagada Town Panchayat and senior Janata Dal(Secular) leader, told presspersons here on Friday that the certificates were issued to all studentsof the taluk till recently by the tahsildar and revenue inspectors. He alleged that the tahsildarsuddenly stopped issuing the certificates to students of Pavagada town on the ground that thepopulation, according to the 2001 Census, is more than 28,000. "The tahsildar's decision isincorrect. The Government must direct him to review his decision in the interests of the students,"Mr. Venkatesh said. He said that Pavagada town is still governed by the town panchayat. TheGovernment has not formed a Town Municipal Council, as required to consider it an urban area.In the absence of the TMC, the tahsildar cannot refuse to issue the certificates, he said.Moreover, he said, the cut-off date for issuing such certificates cannot be determined by therevenue officials unilaterally. (The Hindu 9/7/05)Education policy: State Govt.'s plea to Centre (11)BANGALORE: The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, on Saturday urged the Centre to come outwith an education policy common to all States. Inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations ofPoornaprajna Vidyapeetha here, he said the State Government had already sent a proposal tothe Centre in this regard. He had also taken it up with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. TheChief Minister emphasised that though there have been differences of opinion in the coalitionGovernment, "we have worked hard to solve the CET imbroglio." He said about Rs. 250 croreshad been spent for the midday meal programme, started to encourage poor students to pursuetheir education. But the ultimate aim of the education was to inculcate moral values amongtudents.Commenting on the plight of Sanskrit education, R.V. Desphande, Minister forCooperation, said that the Government would take steps to promote the language and see to itthat the postgraduate courses offered by the institution were recognised. (The Hindu 10/7/05)Heat and dust over CM's photograph on text books (11)Raipur : The Opposition Congress members stalled the proceeding of Chhattisgarh StateAssembly thrice demanding State Government's reply on the issue of publication of the ChiefMinister Raman Singh's photograph in school text books, being given free of cost, and also theremoval of Mahatma Gandhi's photograph from the books. The monsoon session which began onMonday, witnessed noisy scene on the issue. Speaker Prem Prakash Pandey adjourned Housetill Tuesday. Raising the issue of photograph after the question hour Opposition membersdemanded reply from the Chief Minister as to why and under what circumstances the photographof the Father of the Nation Mahatama Gandhi and the stories of great men from the State, like,

Sundar Lal Sharma and Veer Narayan Singh were removed from the text books. The Oppositionmembers raised the issue by moving an adjournment motion and insisted for a detaileddiscussion on the issue. Speaker adjourned the House for five minutes. Again when the Housereassembled, the Opposition members demanded reply from the Government.The Speaker againadjourned House till the post lunch session. However, when the House reassembled for the postlunchsession the Opposition Congress members again raised the issue forcing the House to beadjourned for ten minutes. (Pioneer 12/7/05)Church in education soul-search (11)Ranchi, July 11: Asking dioceses to “examine their conscience”, church leaders will meet earlynext year to find out whether their education system has benefited only the urban upper middleclass and helped spread corruption in the country. Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo said churchleaders belonging to 115 dioceses would meet at Velankanni in Tamil Nadu from January 6 to 8next year to review the role of the schools run by them. “Next year’s plenary would dwell at lengthon whe- ther the church-run institutions have restricted themselves to serving the rich and theupper middle class only. It would also monitor if we have been able to serve the marginalised aswell,” Cardinal Toppo said. The decision to hold the meeting follows the cardinal’s lament lastweek that many bureaucrats who have been charged with corruption had their educationalmoorings in institutions run by missionaries. The church, he said, would like to find out why thestudents had grown to be corrupt in later life in spite of a value-based education system. Thecardinal, who returned to Ranchi today after chairing an executive body meeting of the CatholicCouncil of India in Delhi, said around 300 delegates would gather at Velankanni to deliberate onthe theme, “Catholic education and the Church’s concern for the marginalised”. Toppo said inaddition to the 300 delegates comprising bishops, sisters and youths, the meet would also beattended by prominent educationists from different states. The council plenary would submit itsrecommendations, along with its observations, to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India(CBCI), the highest body of the Roman Catholic Church in the country. (The Telegraph 12/7/05)More wait for draft bill on free education (11)New Delhi, July 14: A draft bill on free and compulsory education for all children aged between 6and 14, being crafted since the NDA government was in power, is likely to see still some more rewriting.At the end of the first day of a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education(CABE), Union human resources development minister Arjun Singh hinted at more delay. Acommittee set up by the CABE has come up with a draft, which was discussed by the entire bodyon Thursday. Education ministers from all states and education experts are attending the two-dayCABE meeting. Talking to reporters, Mr Singh said the government wanted to place the bill assoon as possible in Parliament. But, he added, because of the debate and the need for morediscussion, the government may not be able to finalise the draft immediately. At the same time,there was no intention of prolonging the issue. The "essential provisions" of the draft bill werestudied by a CABE committee headed by science and technology minister Kapil Sibal. Thecommittee’s last meeting was held on June 5 and, according to its report, Mr Sibal wasauthorised to finalise the draft. But there seem to be disagreement even among the members ofthis committee. CABE member Anil Sadgopal created some fuss during Thursday’s meeting,saying that the draft seen on June 5 was different from the one now being presented. Later,talking to the media, Prof. Sadgopal claimed those drafting the bill were under pressure from theprivate school lobby. He felt the draft did not serve the cause of a common system of education.(Asian Age 15/7/05)14 lakh to be enrolled in schools in a month (11)In an ambitious month-long education programme, close to 14 lakh children will be enrolled inschools under the Mukhyamantri Siksha Sambal Mahabhiyan to be kicked off on July 15. TheState Government has been planning for this massive literacy programme for the past sixmonths, having increased the education department's budget from Rs 400 crore to over Rs 1000crore for the current financial year. As part of another major decision, the Government hasdecided to provide free textbooks to students up to Class XII. Also, in an effort to createenvironmental awareness among children, each student will be asked to plant a sapling to be

named after the student who plants it. The forest department has been asked to provide about 15lakh saplings in the next few days. Students' guardians will be asked to take care of their wards'saplings for a year. In another move, the health department has prepared a plan to facilitatemedical check-ups for about a crore of school-going students. The economically backwardamong them will be provided free medical cards under the BPL scheme.According to ChiefMinister Vasundhara Raje, industrial houses and charitable organisations will be persuaded tocontribute towards funds for midday meal schemes in schools, free distribution of textbooks andalso construction of school buildings and hostels (Pioneer 15/7/05_Draft Bill to regulate admissions in private colleges ready (11)NEW DELHI: The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry on Friday set in motionthe process of enacting legislation to regulate admissions and fees in private self-financingprofessional colleges in time for the next academic year by circulating the draft of "The PrivateProfessional Education Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Bill 2005" tomembers of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). The Central legislation has beendrafted in view of the demand from a number of States — particularly from the south where a bulkof the private self-financing professional colleges are located — for such a law. The proposedlegislation will be applicable to deemed-to-be universities offering professional education, andprivate aided or unaided professional education institutions affiliated to a university establishedunder Section 2(f) of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956. While there is aprovision for an Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee at the Centre to regulate fees andadmissions in private/unaided professional institutions affiliated to a Central University or aDeemed-to-be University, every State and Union Territory will also have their own suchcommittees to determine fees in such institutions affiliated to a State University. Such committeescan fix the fees only after every institution has been given an opportunity to present its case. Asfor admissions, the Bill has stipulated the reservation of seats permissible under the managementquota for different categories of institutions. (The Hindu 16/7/05)‘Madrasa, Sangh books communal’ (11)New Delhi, July 17: Quick. Name two issues on which the RSS-schools and the madrasas agree.Answer: They say the same things about the Aryans and Buddhism. This is what the a recentreport commissioned by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) discovered. Scanningtextbooks taught in private schools, particularly affiliated to religious bodies, it found theypropagated a narrow, often communal view of the world. And while doing so they agreed onsome things.Books taught in madrasas referred to pre-Aryan cultures as extremely degenerateand described Aryans as "great and gentle," according to the Cabe report drafted by a panelheaded by academicians Zoya Hasan and Gopal Guru. The RSS shared this viewpoint, it said.On Buddhism also, there was some similarity between the perspectives of the Jamaat and thebooks brought about by Vidya Bharti. "Both are uncomfortable with the Buddhist principle of nonviolenceand regard it as an impediment in putting curbs on wrong-doers," the report discussed,and broadly endorsed, at a recent Cabe meeting said."On the whole the books are replete withreligious and theistic prejudices," it said. The Cabe committee studied books taught mostly inschools which don’t follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus, and don’tteach textbooks approved by the National Council of Educational Research and Training(NCERT). (Asian Age 18/7/05Girls: Missing in books, classrooms (11)New Delhi, July 18: In many school books, women are in purdah: you just don’t get to see toomany of them. Those illustrating the textbooks have a clear preference for men. Consider threebooks picked at random by a panel commissioned by the Central Board of School Education(CABE) to look at privately-published textbooks. ABC of Social Studies for Class 5 carries 33pictures. Twenty-eight of the figures are of males, five of females. There are 11 male and just twofemale figures in Gem’s History and Civics for Class 6. Time, Space and People for Class 6 ismore equitable, but not quite there: it has 33 males and 19 females. The male-dominated picturesillustrate the gender bias in textbooks, particularly those taught in schools outside thegovernment-system. In fact, girls are missing not just from the pictures that accompany the text.

them, with the University enrolling at least 100 such students every year in Arabic, Persian andother languages. What has irked the students here is the University's refusal to admit evenmigration students in the second year. "For a long time madrassa students have registered andtaken admission in the second year after completing their first year in universities like Jamia MilliaIslamia and Aligarh Muslim University. What is even more shocking is that no one knew about thenew committee including the concerned faculties of Arabic or Persian who were never consulted,''says JNU Students' Union vice-president Ena Panda. (The Hindu 23/7/05)Rs 487 cr education project for TN (11)Chennai, July 24: The Central government has cleared projects in Tamil Nadu to the tune of Rs487 crore under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme this year. An official of the directorate ofSarva Siksha Abhiyan (education for all) said that the funds include Rs 10 crore for the nationalprogramme for education to girls at elementary level. As many as 684 primary schools in thestate will be upgraded to upper primary schools, which will have classes from one to eight.Classrooms in about 5,000 schools, water facilities for about 3,000 schools and toilets for about5,200 schools will be constructed at a cost of Rs 158 crore. An amount of Rs 20 crore has beenallotted as maintenance grant, out of which Rs 5,000 will be provided to primary schools and Rs10,000 for upper primary school. About 2 lakh teachers will be given a teaching grant of Rs 500per year for buying learning aids, like charts, papers, crayons, etc, he said. About 162 primaryschools are being established in areas where there are no schools within a radius of 1 km, thisproject will get completed by August. He also said that two special teachers and a physiotherapistwould be appointed at all block centres for treating disabled children. An amount of Rs 28 crorehas been granted for training of teachers. Under this project, teachers would be given 20 daystraining every year. This training will also deal with activity-based training. Out of the Rs 487 crorefund, Rs 30 crore has been allotted for bringing back the students to regular schools those whohave not joined schools or have dropped out and also for providing some bridge courses for themto enrol them again in regular schools. For this purpose, non-governmental organisations havebeen appointed at each block centre, he added. (Asian Age 25/7/05Khalsa College's minority status under notice (11)New Delhi : The claim of SGTB Khalsa College of being a minority institution has run into ajeopardy following an explanation sought by the University Grants Commission as on what basiswas the college reserving 50 per cent of its seats for Sikh students. The Commission on Mondayhas also asked for an explanation on what basis the relaxation is being given on the cut off marksby the college for the admission to Sikh students. A college student and a subject topper, whohad informed the UGC and the Delhi University (DU) authorities about the college's irregularitieshad to bear the brunt as he is now denied admission in the MA course, despite meeting the cutoffrequirements.Claiming itself a minority institution, five to 10 per cent relaxation in the cut-offpercentage is given to the Sikh students. In addition, the admission form asks if the applicantbelongs to Sikh spiritual tradition. The college has also received a letter from the university askingfor an explanation on such irregularities. Flouting the DU rules, the college has been allotting 50per cent seats to the Sikh students. "We have been witnessing these discrimination on behalf ofthe college authorities for quite some time. Not being able to withstand any longer, I reported thematter to the university authorities and the UGC too," said Rajat Bamba, the college Students'Union president, who was denied admission to the MA course in History despite his meeting therequirement of 55 per cent in aggregate, the eligibility criteria for direct admission in the course.(Pioneer 26/7/05)Funds meant for schools unused (11)New Delhi, July 27: Funds or no funds, work in Congress-led Municipal Corporation of Delhimoves at its own pace. For instance, its education department in the last two consecutive fiscalyears did not spend the entire funds even when its primary school students have been deprivedof basic facilities such as toilets, better classes and electricity. Sample this: During 2003-04 and2004-05 against Rs 130 crores and Rs 135 crores respectively allotted in the Budget under theplan head only Rs 108 crores and Rs 105 crores was spend. While under the non-plan head itwas Rs 429 crores and Rs 515 crores during the same period Rs 700 crores was utilised.

Quran, Hadis, Figh (jurisprudence) Tafseer (explanation of Quran), Ilm-i-Kalam, Sarf and Naheu(Arabic literature and grammar), Tarikh (history) beginning from Prophet Muhammed to Khilafat-i-Rashida. The books belong to 10th century AD to 18th century AD." Even NCERT has not beenable to set up a Provision Board for the development of curriculum and literature for madrasaeducation in the country. Lack of trained teachers, late arrival of the Urdu medium books in themarket besides inadequate texts is another reason behind the poor performance of the madrasaswhich follow the NCERT syllabus, the CABE further points out. While scanning every aspect ofthe textbooks, the committee has found that "Each lesson is followed by innumerable questionswhich is very difficult to cope with by the students as well as by the teachers, specially in historytext books. History and geography text books specially that of class VII are quite detailed andstudents find themselves in a difficult situation when asked to choose answers from these text. Insuch a process weak students are left behind." (Asian Age 4/8/05)BJP lotus in textbook: MP blacklists printer (11)Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Babulal Gaur and his colleagues may have refused toconcede in the Assembly that the image of the country’s national flower, the lotus, published in aschool textbook on social science was in fact a replica of BJP poll symbol, the state governmenttacitly admitted the faux pas on Wednesday by blacklisting the printer and compositor. Twoofficials of the school education department have also been served notice in this regard, and adecision taken to replace the offending "kamal ka phool" with a genuine lotus in the future printruns of the textbook in question. The general impression was that the state government couldhave graciously put the lid on the controversy by confessing the error, thereby puncturing theCongress hope of making an issue of it. By refusing to back down and compelling the Speaker tocome to their defence over a bad cause, the BJP did not cover itself with glory. What’s worse isthat the 16-day Monsoon Session of the Assembly had to be adjourned sine die a whole week inadvance. It was left to Speaker Ishwar Das Rohani to take all the brickbats. The governmentsources indicated that the whole controversy may have been caused by downright carelessnessor plain overzealousness on the part of some officials. A formal decision was apparently taken toreplace the existing photo of the lotus with a fresh image of the flower. But since no snap wasprovided, the printer, on his own initiative, selected one from his stock. But this explanation, feltsome, may have been fabricated to save the government from embarrassment. In reality, sourcesinformed, the real villains may have been the officials who wanted to please their minister. (AsianAge 5/8/05)State of primary schooling in Kolkata "grim" (11)KOLKATA: The inspection system for all schools, including State schools where it is meant to bemandatory but is largely absent, needs to be urgently revived, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen saidhere on Sunday while presenting the preliminary findings of the Pratichi Research Team of thePratichi [India] Trust on primary schooling in Kolkata. "The parent-teacher committees needreviving and an educational plan is needed for the city to make this vital tool of good schoolingarrangements to be operational and effective," Prof. Sen added. The Pratichi [India] Trust was setup by Prof. Sen in 1999 and the research team has been concerned since 2001 with the state ofprimary education and health care in six rural districts in West Bengal and one in Jharkhand. Lastyear the team started focusing on primary schooling in Kolkata. Its finding on the situation inKolkata offers a fairly "grim" picture and the "overall situation of primary education in Corporation[Kolkata Municipal Corporation]-run and State-run schools in the city is certainly quitediscouraging," Prof. Sen said. The findings revealed considerable dissatisfaction among parentswith the schools' performance, high frequency of absenteeism of pupils and an "extraordinarydependence on private tuition for almost anyone who could afford it," among other factors, Prof.Sen said. (The Hindu 8/8/05)Education cannot be left to market forces: expert (11)MYSORE: The three-day South Zone Vice-Chancellors' Conference began here on Wednesdaywith experts cautioning that the higher education system faces more challenges thanopportunities under the World Trade Organisation regime. More than 50 Vice-Chancellors fromthe southern States are attending the conference being held on the Infosys campus. The theme

of the conference is "Higher education under WTO: challenges and opportunities." It has beenorganised by the University of Mysore and the Association of Indian Universities. AssociationPresident Vachaspati Upadhyaya said that the higher education system is facing manychallenges under the WTO and cautioned against commercialisation of higher education. He saidhigher education cannot be left to market forces, as it will lead to commodification of educationand culminate in producing "efficient robots." The fear of subservience of higher education tomarket forces under the WTO stemmed from the recent trends where negotiations are on forliberalisation of trade in education services. Governor T.N. Chaturvedi said that universitiesshould stand for universality. He called upon the Vice-Chancellors to discuss the importance ofadhering to the twin objectives of quality and relevance of education in the changing times. In thiscontext, he touched upon the need for social inclusiveness and gender sensitisation in education.(The Hindu 11/8/05)Don’t need no education, all 1.31 cr of them (11)New Delhi: An estimated 1.31 crore children in the 6-14 age group, that is, 5% of the total numberof children in that category in India, do not figure in the Union human resources developmentministry's statistics on elementary education in the country. And if bureaucrats inside the ministryand consultants outside it are to be believed, the gap may be even wider, given the focus so farhas been on crunching enrolment statistics, rather than checking whether the enrolled child hasactually been attending school or not. For a department striving to achieve a zero drop-out rate allover the country latest by 2007 (the rate stood at 52.8% in 2002), this deficit has expertsassociated with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and other primary education programmes,seriously doubting the achievability of the target. According to the projections made by theministry, based on data from the 2001 census, there are about 20.5 crore children in the countryin the 6-14 years' age group. As per the latest enrolment data, the total number of childrenenrolled in Classes I-VIII in 2002-03 was 16.8 crore and the number of out-of-school childrenbased on data received from the states in September 2003, is 2.39 crore. (Times of India 13/8/05)Modi twists freedom, Gandhi, Vasco (11)New Delhi: Social science has been given a new twist by Mr Narendra Modi’s government inGujarat. A Class 9 social science text book cleared by the state education department has theBritish leaving India because of their own weakness, and not because of the freedom movement,has Gandhi regretting the use of satyagraha, has Vasco da Gama bringing Europe to thegateway of India, has the people of India electing the President, and has held widow remarriageresponsible for the increasing birth rate. The book has been published by the Gujarat State Boardof Education and uses distorted facts and figments of imagination to "educate" young minds insimply atrocious language. Sample a paragraph on youth: "It (youth) is in the age group of 10-19.Compared to children and old people, the youths need more nutrition. Malnutrition would degradetheir hygiene. The food available to youths is less nutritive. Many girls suffer from blooddeficiency. The youth group is a non productive part of nation. They are simply the consumers ofmaterial goods and services (sic)." This is on Page 164. The next page declares, "If everycountryman becomes an ideal citizen and develops patriotism, the National Population Policy candefinitely be achieved." Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has been presiding over consistentefforts by his education department to incorporate a certain viewpoint, not always based onreality, in the school text books. Widespread protests by reputed historians and activistorganisations have fallen on deaf ears in the past with the state government insisting that therewas no distortion of facts, and that the adverse reaction was prompted by simple "typographicalerrors". Prashant, the Ahmedabad-based centre for human rights, justice and peace, has calledfor the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the book. (Asian Age 17/8/05)Report on free education to poor kids draws court ire (11)NEW DELHI: Expressing dissatisfaction over the "Compliance Report" on adhering to thecondition of providing free education to poor students by un-aided and aided schools here, theDelhi High Court on Thursday summoned in person the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)Commissioner, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Vice-Chairman, the Director of theEducation of the Delhi Government and the Land & Development Officer. A Division Bench

comprising Justice B.A. Khan and Justice Madan B. Lokur asked the above-mentioned officials toappear before the Court in person on August 25. The Bench also sought the names and thenumber of the schools who had defaulted on the implementation of the condition of providing freeeducation to children of economically weaker section. These schools were allotted land atconcessional rates with the condition that of their respective total strength, they would makeavailable 25 percent of the seats free to students of economically weaker section. Observing thatthe purpose of providing free education to students belonging to economically weaker sectionwas getting defeated, the Bench pulled up the Delhi Government and the Land & Developmentofficer for not initiating action against the erring schools. The Bench had also taken exception to afresh decision by the Delhi Government that the condition would be applicable from May 1, 2004.(Hindu 19/8/05)Bill soon for better safeguard of guarantees to minority educational institutionsNEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet decided on Thursday to amend the National Commission forMinority Educational Institutions Act to provide for better safeguard of the Constitutionalguarantee to the minorities regarding the establishment and administration of educationalinstitutions of their choice. A Bill to amend the Act would be introduced in Parliament soon.Announcing this, the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said the Cabinet also decided toremove drugs and pharmaceuticals from Schedule II of the notification, which requiredcompulsory licensing under the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, on the ground thatthey were covered under another legislation. The removal of the additional requirement oflicensing under the I (D&R) Act is designed to simplify the environment for setting up units in thesector. (the Hindu 19/8/05)Minority status for Sikh colleges? (11)New Delhi : While on the one hand the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC)is putting its best foot forward to earn "minority status" for the two Delhi University's (DU) SGTBKhalsa colleges, the colleges' staff members strongly oppose it on the other. In a meeting onWednesday, the staff association of both the colleges passed a resolution protesting theCommittee's efforts to turn them into minority educational institutions. Two petitions by theCommittee asking for "minority status" for both the colleges at north campus and Dev Nagar havealready been rejected by the High Court. Going ahead with the plea, the Committee has alreadyapplied to the newly constituted National Council for Minority Institutions (NCMI). Nevertheless,the staff association comprising the teaching staff members of both the colleges have rejectedoutright such a stance by the parent body. Interestingly, both the resolutions were passedunanimously by the college teaching staff members comprising 50 per cent Sikh teachers. "Weare yet to be convinced about the necessity of the minority status of the college. This will not bebeneficial as far as the academic health and interest of the college is concerned," said Dr ShahZaved-ul-Malik, an English teacher at the north campus college. Opposing its parent body'smove, Dr Malik further said, "It is true that the nomenclature of the college follows the name of aSikh guru and the functioning of the college is backed by the Sikh community, but this recognitionwill only provide a platform for some vested interests in the college governing body to appeasetheir patrons."Maintaining the same stance, the teachers at the staff association meeting at theDev Nagar campus have decided to meet the Committee requesting the withdrawal of itsapplication from the NCMI. (Pioneer 19/8/05)Teachers victims of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (11)New Delhi : Who are the step children of the nationwide elementary education and Sarva ShikshaAbhiyaan (SSA) campaign? The answer is the teachers recruited by various state governments tomake the scheme a success story. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha last week, the UnionHuman Resource Development Ministry informed that over seven lakh posts of teachers weresanctioned for the year 2005-06. However, the Ministry conceded that it did not have confirmedreports about whether the state governments were offering the teachers a regular job orappointing them on adhoc basis for the central scheme. Minister of State for HRD MAA Fatmi toldthe Lok Sabha that "since recruitment of the teachers is the responsibility of the state

governments, Government of India has taken up the matter with the respective stategovernments." He was replying to a question on whether some state governments were yet to fillup the posts of teachers sanctioned under the SSA scheme. Not surprisingly, there was agitationof the adhoc teachers in Orissa recently demanding regularisation of their jobs. Last year, WestBengal's school and primary education minister Kanti Biswas announced that his department wasrecruiting adhoc teachers on Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 per month basis on contract for a year.According to the HRD Ministry, the state governments, which get 75 per cent fund from the UnionGovernment pool for implementing the elementary education and the SSA and put in their shareof 25 percent in the scheme, were asked to keep a separate amount for teachers and theirtraining. But , an annual report which elaborated on teachers' training for these schemes, didn'texplain the share of teachers' salaries in the fund allotted for implementing the scheme. (Pioneer22/8/05)Parties favour law for social justice in education (11)NEW DELHI: A Central law providing for social justice and elimination of commercialisation ofeducation emerged as the preferred response of the polity on Tuesday to the situation arising outof the Supreme Court judgment abolishing quotas and reservation in private unaided professionalcolleges. A majority of the leaders who attended an all-party meeting, convened here by UnionHuman Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh, emphasised the need for ensuringthat minority rights as enshrined in Article 30 of the Constitution were protected while drafting thelegislation. Emerging from the three-hour meeting, Mr. Singh told reporters that a multipartycommittee would be set up to provide political inputs to the drafting process. Appreciating theconsensus across the political spectrum, he said party leaders had authorised him to set up thecommittee, which would be broadly representative. Refusing to divulge details of the strength ofthe committee or who would head it, Mr. Singh said it would provide a window for continuousconsultations while drafting the law "which will have to be done carefully." Asked whether the useof the word "carefully" meant having a provision, which would ensure that it was not struck down,he indicated that this would not be possible. As for the time frame for drafting the law, he said itwas set by the Supreme Court, which permitted status quo on admissions till the next academicsession. (The Hindu 24/8/05)Slammed by Left, NCERT goes for secular rewrite (11)NEW DELHI, AUGUST 28: Following severe criticism from Left academicians, the NCERT hasrevised its draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for school textbooks to be introduced fromthe next academic year. The Left hardliners had accused those who drafted the NCF of going softon ‘‘toxification’’—the ‘‘pro-Hindutva changes’’ in textbooks made by the NDA government. Thecritics had also alleged that the framework—prepared by a committee headed by Prof Yashpal—did not lay sufficient emphasis on science and gave too much importance to the role of personalexperience in learning, leaving room for pro-Hindutva teaching. ‘‘We have listened to the criticismand made appropriate amendments,’’ said an NCERT official. While the revised draft will come upbefore the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) for approval on September 7, here aresome of the major revisions in the NCF: (Indian Express 29/8/05)BJP states to oppose curriculum framework (11)New Delhi : The Education Ministers of the five BJP-ruled states will oppose the NationalCurriculum Framework 2005 during the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meetingnext week. The CABE is meeting to finalise the NCF 2005. If the tone of the former HRD ministerand BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi is any indication, the voice of dissent would haunt the CABEmeeting. He told The Pioneer that as "the present Government is planning to replace nationalismwith Marxism, we cannot wait and watch." This is the logical extension of the policy adopted bythe present UPA Government, he said. Dr Joshi said the representatives of the BJP-ruled stateswould raise serious protests against the violation of the spirit of the National Education Policy1986 and deviations from suggestions made during parliamentary debates. Incidentally, the BJPrepresentatives staged a walkout on June 5 meeting of the CABE. While the debate on the NCF2005 gathers heat, the Siksha Bachao Andolon (SBA), a forum comprising 14 bodies, urged the

BJP-ruled states to reject the NCF 2005. Speaking to The Pioneer Mr Dina Nath Batra, the SBAconvenor, said the NCERT, which prepared the draft ignored the long-standing demands onissues raised by the SBA. The SBA has criticised the draft as having deviated from education forallline by "seeking to introduce an elitist NCF by the NCERT." The SBA said that "the draft talksabout offering choices of various levels of options to some students, forgot its impracticality inIndian situation with a vast majority of schools having limited space." (Pioneer 3/9/05)NCERT revises National Curriculum Framework; draft unveiled (11)NEW DELHI: Under fire from a section of the academic community for drafting a curriculum that"lacked a firm commitment against a sectarian and narrow vision of education," the NationalCouncil of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has revised the National CurriculumFramework (NCF) 2005 ahead of next week's meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education(CABE). The revised draft was unveiled here on Saturday by NCERT Director Krishna Kumarwho said an attempt had been made to address the concerns raised by the critics of the NCF-2005 by elaborating on the issues in question. The NCF was put up for CABE clearance in Junethis year but the members decided to allow States more time to counter the charge that theGovernment was trying to push through the new curriculum in haste without consultation. Thenew document, according to Prof. Kumar, seeks to make secular democracy a robust idea.Academics under the banner of Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust and Communalism Combat hadaccused the NCERT of "toeing a politically correct line" while drafting NCF-2005. Another chargewas that it did not address the contentious issues that had dominated discourse in educationalcircles during the six years of National Democratic Alliance rule. While the first draft proposedfour guiding principles to address distortions in educational aims and quality, the reviseddocument has added a fifth that seeks to nurture "an identity soaked in caring concerns within thedemocratic polity of the country.'' This guiding principle of an "overriding national identity," Prof.Kumar said, was a suggestion made by the Bihar Government. As for the controversialsuggestion of board examinations being made optional at the Class X level for those who wish tocontinue to Class XI, the revised document clarifies the position. "Boards should consider, as along-term measure, making Class X examination optional, thus permitting students continuing inthe same school [and who do not need a board certificate] to take an internal school examinstead,'' it said. (The Hindu 4/9/05)Joshi assails move to distort Indian history (11)New Delhi :: Former human resource minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Sunday assailed the moveto distort the Indian history by the NCERT and demanded that school syllabus, which describedLord Ram and Lord Krishna as 'imaginary figures,' should be scraped immediately.He said: "Ourchildren are taught that Rama and Krishna are imaginary figures, Aryans came from outside andthey consumed beef." Mr Joshi, a senior BJP leader, was addressing a gathering on the occasionof the 27th foundation day of Kendriya Arya Yuvak Parishad.Just two-day before the CentralAdvisory Board of Education (CABE) meeting to finalise the National Curriculum Framework2005, Mr Joshi's statement indicates that the school education ministers from the five BJP-ruledStates are not likely to accept the 'distortions' which, the observers claim, came due to theMarxist influence. Mr Joshi, who was the former HRD minister during the NDA rule, said insteadefforts should be made to "save" India's culture, history and religion. He demanded that theVedas, Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads should be included in the school curriculum."Wegenerally look down upon our own culture, religion and history and those who talk about theseissues are immediately dubbed as "communal," he said. He regretted that "such a situation canhappen only in India." To elaborate his claim, he gave the example of Assam Chief Ministerhaving to withdrew his statement that the Bangladeshi immigrants were in a majority in some ofthe districts. (Pioneer 5/9/05)NCERT draft high on CABE agenda today (11)NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 5: Learning without burden’’ is what the revised National CurriculumFramework (NCF) aims at the country’s school education. The document proposes several stepsto reduce stress among children and make “learning enjoyable’’. The draft will come up for theapproval of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) tomorrow. “Our educational system is

highly taxing on the child. The number of suicides by school children is indicative of theunmanageable stress that they undergo and that is among the prime concerns of the NCF,’’ saysProf Yashpal, chairman of the 35-member committee that drafted the framework. The panel hassuggested several methods which boards could deliberate upon. Some are: • Shift from contentbasedtesting to problem solving and analytical skill • Examinations with shorter duration withmore multiple choice questions • On Demand Examinations, in which a child could finish hisexamination requirements over a period of time, whenever they feel prepared. • Eliminate passfailterminology; instead indicate lack of proficiency by recommending re-examination. The NCFsays “boards should consider, as a long-term measure, making Class X Boards optional’’, forstudents who continue in the same school. The NCF has also proposed counselling and guidancein schools to deal with stress-related problems. It suggests that the total homework for a primarystudent should not exceed two hours a week, for middle school, one hour a day and forsecondary stages, not more than two hours a day. (Indian Exp 6/9/05)BJP ministers walk out, see Left hand in NCF (11)NEW DELHI, SEPT 6: Education ministers from five BJP-ruled states walked out of the CentralAdvisory Board of Education (CABE) meeting, which was held today to approve the NationalCurriculum Framework (NCF), alleging that the Centre has ‘‘surrendered education’’ to the Left.The ministers alleged that Sanskrit and yoga were not given ‘‘due importance’’ in the framework,which did not ‘‘appreciate India’s heritage adequately’’. The NCERT governing council had earlieraccepted the framework before sending it to the CABE for its approval. Education ministers fromRajasthan, MP, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand staged the walkout, alleging that their viewswere not included in the NCF. Rajasthan Minister Vasudev Devnani said the Centre has‘‘surrendered education to Marxists’’. However, Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who moved theresolution to accept the framework, said all suggestions made by the ministers will be taken intoaccount when the syllabus and textbooks are prepared. A monitoring committee of CABEmembers and state representatives will be set up to ensure this process, he added. Devananisaid that BJP-ruled states may even consider not working within the NCF if their proposals arenot accepted. ‘‘Emphasis is not given to Sanskrit, which is devvani (language of the Gods), andyoga is only been discussed as part of physical training. Yoga should be taught as a separatestream with much more importance,’’ he said. (Indian Exp. 7/9/05)HC notice to DU on Hindi textbooks (11)New Delhi, September 7: THE DELHI High Court has sought an explanation from the EducationSecretary, and the DU registrar on why there were insufficient books for about 80,000 Hindimedium students of the university. The order came from a division bench of Justice Bijender Jainand Justice Rekha Singh on a PIL filed by Peoples Union for Civil Liberties. The bench asked thetwo officials to appear before the court on October 26,2005. The court also asked therespondents to state reasons for not appointing enough Hindi teachers for the students. The PILfiled by the People's Union of Civil Liberties alleged that the university wasn't taking interest inimparting education in Hindi. Counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the PUCL, submitted thatthe DU had created Hindi Directorate in 1978 to translate books in Hindi but that had failed todeliver the result. Bhushan sought directions from the court to make arrangements for impartingeducation in Hindi. (Hindustan Times 8/9/05)UP and Bihar are flush with funds, yet literacy crawls (11)New Delhi: THE NATIONAL Literacy Mission (NLM) is ailing in 'fund flushed' Bihar and UttarPradesh. A national-level scanning of the progress of NLM revealed that both these States havethe huge number of districts coming under low literacy level. Though the Human ResourceMinistry did not quite explain what exactly may have ailed the programme in Bihar and UttarPradesh, but it admitted on the International Literacy Day Celebration that "progress is patchyand doubtful in some States." UP with 37 districts and in Bihar 31, have indeed put the HRD in atroubled spot despite long and sustained campaigns. However, hi the speeches made during thecolourful function on the International Literacy Day on Thursday the HRD ministers and officialsdidn't name the states or their individual problems. According to a report, Literacy, Facts At AGlance, released by the HRD, both the Bihar and UP not only top the list of low literacy rate

among the states, but also doing equally bad on the female literacy front. Interestingly, while theMinistry gave out the stark details of ailing literacy programme in these states, it gave no morethan a few generalised oneliners as reasons for what may have ailed the programme. In thechapter: Factors Responsible for poor female literacy rate, the report said: "Gender-basedinequality; social discrimination and economic exploitation; occupation of girl child in domesticchores; low enrolment of girls in schools," continue to ail the programme in the states with poorrecord. (Pioneer 9/9/05)69 % are illiterate in Bihar's Kishanganj (11)New Delhi, Sept. 8: Nine of the country's 20 most illiterate districts are in Bihar, an indication ofhow a few states drag the country's overall literacy rate down. Bihar's worst is Kishanganj districtwith a literacy rate of 31 per cent of the entire population. Less than 19 per cent of the females inthat district are literate. These were some of the facts to mull over on Thursday, the InternationalLiteracy Day. In Delhi, human resources development minister Arjun Singh presented awardstofield workers involved in the National Literacy Mission, and to Bhagalpur district in Bihar for itsTotal Literacy Campaign. Against the national average of nearly 65 per cent, Bihar has the worstliteracy rate — 47 per cent, and only 33 per cent for females. Jharkhand, carved out from oldBihar, is at the second place from the bottom with a literacy rate of below 54 per cent. Otherstates which fall below the national average include Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Apart from states likethese, smaller low-performing pockets — the districts — too prevent the national average fromrising at a faster pace. The country's most illiterate district is Dantewada in Chhattisgarh,according to information culled by the HRD ministry from the Census figures. Only 30 per cent ofpeople here are literate; for women, the figure is 21 per cent. Malkangri (Orissa) and Pakaur(Jharkhand) are less than a percentage point better. In fact, the best among the country's worst20 districts has a literacy rate of only 38 per cent. (Asian Age 9/9/05)‘Revamp vocational education’ (11)New Delhi, Sept. 12: Jobs for all? The National Curriculum Framework 2005 has its own take onthe issue. It has suggested a thorough overhaul of the school-level vocational educationprogramme. And it wants the new plan implemented in a "mission mode". The NCF 2005, whichthe Centre expects will be the basis for preparing school syllabi now, notes that the existingschool-level vocational education programme has not made much of a dent. So far, it has beenrun as a distinct stream parallel to the academic stream. Though the National Policy on Education1986 had set a goal of enrolling 25 per cent of the Plus Two students in the vocational stream bythe year 2000, only five per cent of the students actually take that option now. The programmehas suffered from "a range of conceptual, managerial and resource constraints", the recentlyadoptedcurriculum framework says. vocational education at present is seen as an "inferiorstream," it notes. According to the NCF, the existing programme offers poor infrastructure,obsolete equipment, untrained teachers, inflexible courses, a lack of a credible evaluation,accreditation and apprenticeship system, and finally poor employability. "Clearly, a gigantic andurgent task of building up an effective and dynamic programme of vocational education is longoverdue," the curriculum framework says. The NCF 2005 recommends moving towards a newprogramme of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in a phased manner. It would involvesetting up separate VET centres from the level of village clusters to towns and metropolitanareas. (Asian Age 13/9/05)You paid the cess, Govt made a mess (11)New Delhi : Out of Rs 8004.71-cr allotted for education, HRD clueless on how Rs 5,580.72 cr wasspent--- The Human Resource Development Ministry seems to be clueless on the pattern ofexpenditure incurred on the nationwide Elementary Education (EE) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA) schemes. The only available expenditure records - under five heads and not all the heads -amount to Rs 2,324.99 crore of the total fund allocation of Rs 8,004.71 crore. In the absence ofan expenditure breakup, Rs 2,324.99 crore taken out of the total amount shows a hugeexpenditure of Rs 5,680.72 crore as spent for which no records are available. A huge amount oftaxpayers' money was collected by way of two-per cent cess by the Finance Ministry after the

UPA Government was sworn in for the two schemes. The total fund of Rs 8,004.71 crore has theshare of Rs 5,010 crore which was collected through the cess. The missing expenditure figuresin both the EE and SSA schemes indicate a misuse of funds. That the fund has not exactly beenutilised for the purpose gets further reinforced by the poor performance of the National LiteracyMission in some States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Interestingly, the Union Government, whichcreated a huge fund for implementing the scheme under the HRD Ministry, understandably "hasno records" other than those that show the total expenditure incurred over the schemes. HRDreports do not elaborate the money spent on all heads for the spread of EE and SSA. Anexpenditure of Rs 5,680.72 crore does not find heads on which the entire amount is being spent.Figures of the fund spent are only available under five heads: Mid-day meal, district primaryeducation, Kusturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, support to NGOs, Jan Shikshan Sangathan (seebox). (Pioneer 14/9/05)HC seeks NCERT's reply on textbooks issue (11)New Delhi : The Delhi High Court has issued notices on a petition seeking to withdraw the historyand social sciences textbooks recently brought out by the National Council of EducationalResearch and Training (NCERT) alleging that they are nothing but a reprint of the old"controversial" texts. The Division Bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharmaissued notices to the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) and NCERT seeking their replies by October 26, the next date of hearing. Thepetition filed by Deena Nath Batra and four others of the non-government organization, ShikshaBachao Andolan stated that the books on Social Science and History recently introduced byNCERT for the academic year 2005-06was nothing but the same old books which were incirculation from 1966 to 2002. They were discontinued after implementation of the NationalCurriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE-2000). Senior advocate RP Bansal,appearing for the petitioner stated that the new textbooks were shown to conform with NCFSE-2000, but a perusal of the texts exposed this lie. Mr Bansal stated that NCFSE-2000 providedstudy of all regions of India while the new texts have left out vast stretches of north eastern statesand South India. The Framework further suggested that the intent of correcting the old texts wasto promote communal harmony, but the textbooks heaped insults on Jains and Sikhs which isdangerous for the children's psyche. (Pioneer 15/9/05)Online school admission reduces drop-out rate (11)NEW DELHI: The new online admission policy of the State Education Department for primarylevel in Delhi Government schools has brought down the dropout rate from 15 per cent to 5 percent this year. This has lead to 70,000 new admissions, of which 35,000 are girl students whonever made to school beyond the fifth standard. There is another bit of good news in theeducation sector with the Government claiming that results of the senior secondary levelexaminations have improved by more than 25 per cent, a record figure for the past decade. Anelated Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely told newspersons on Monday that use of moderntechnology, change in strategy for spreading universal education and coming down heavily onred-tapism had helped in reversing the trend of dropouts prevalent in Delhi. Mr. Lovely said use ofthe online admission system introduced this year had led to a major improvement in theadmission scenario in Government and aided schools. The Education Minister informed thatearlier students and their parents had to face problems for school admissions because they didnot know the actual availability of seats and the location of schools after passing out from fifthstandard from the MCD schools. Tough rules for getting a Transfer Certificate and the indifferentattitude of some principals led to huge dropout rate. (The Hindu 20/9/05)In Hindi belt, elementary education will soon go hi-tech (11)NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: Elementary education in the country is set to go hi-tech. A pilotproject approved by the HRD Ministry today will link nearly 1,000 schools in Bihar, MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh through EDUSAT, the exclusive education satellite.The project will take off on November 19, the birth anniversary of former prime minister IndiraGandhi. Launched on September 20, 2004, EDUSAT has enhanced distance education in thecountry, especially in medical, technical and higher education streams. In parts of Kerala and

Karnataka, it has also been used to link rural schools. But the new project will—for the first time—test the viability of satellite-enabled elementary education in the Hindi heartland. ‘‘If it is foundsuccessful, it can be replicated in a large number of inaccessible rural schools, adding value toelementary education,’’ said an HRD Ministry official, adding, ‘‘This mechanism can help ruralschools overcome a host of deficiencies.’’ The project will be run by the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) and the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)—the former willset up technical infrastructure while the latter will develop courses and train teachers. At cost ofnearly Rs 12 crore—most of it from ISRO—the project will cover schools in Chhattisgarh’s Koradistrict, Bihar’s Babhua, UP’s Son Bhadra and MP’s Sidhi. The project will involve setting up acentral control system at Jabalpur’s Pandit D P Mishra Institute of Information Technology, whichwill be connected to rural schools. The Rani Durgawati University in Jabalpur will collaborate onhuman resources training. (Indian Exp 22/9/05)Plan to boost secondary education (11)NEW DELHI: The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry's plan to make universalisationof secondary education a major Eleventh Plan initiative has got a fillip with PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh approving a Planning Commission proposal to adopt the mission modeto meet the growing demand for secondary schooling. After the Mid-Term Review of the TenthPlan earlier this year, the Planning Commission had suggested the formulation of a mission toaddress the surge in demand for secondary education anticipated by the turn of the decade as aresult of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — also a mission mode endeavour — to universaliseelementary education. According to the Planning Commission, the increased demand forsecondary education would be a key issue in the Eleventh Plan and involve substantial resourceimplications. Assuming that the Knowledge Commission — set up by the Prime Minister tosuggest ways to consolidate India's position as a "knowledge power" — is already looking intothis, the Planning Commission has offered to tie-up with it to formulate a mission for secondaryeducation in the Eleventh Plan. The good tidings for secondary education come from the topechelons of power at a time when the HRD Ministry is drawing up a plan to make universalisationof secondary education (USE) a major thrust area in the Eleventh Plan as 22 million studentsare estimated to be eligible for secondary education by the end of this decade. Thoughuniversalisation of elementary education is still five years away as per the SSA target, theMinistry is working on the premise that it is not wise to wait for 2010 to draw up a roadmap forUSE. This is also the advice from the Central Advisory Board of Education committee entrustedwith the task of drawing up a blueprint for USE. (The Hindu 27/9/05)Arjun talks education for all at UNESCO (11)NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 5: India is firmly focussed on education for all. Union Minister for HRDArjun Singh told the 33rd session of the UNESCO general conference in Paris today. “The SarvaSiksha Abhiyan (SSA), combined with the mid-day meal scheme, has brought down the dropoutrates in primary stage substantively,” the minister said, adding that India was committed tomaking sure that all children complete eight years of elementary education by 2010. At theconference, India has proposed to develop some centres of excellence in basic sciences asRegional Centres of Excellence for the Asian Pacific Region. From 2006-07, India will not acceptfunding under UNESCO’s Participation Programme. “The amount thus saved can be used forprojects in least developed countries,” the minister told the conference. (Indian Exp 6/10/05)Madrasas move SC for govt funds (11)New Delhi, October 21: THE SUPREME Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre, UttarPradesh and Mad-hya Pradesh governments on a petition filed by a few madrasas seekingrelease of funds promised by the Union and the states for modernising and upgrading syllabi. Abench, comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and Arun Kumar, issued the notices to the secretary(education) HRD ministry, the director of UP's Minority Welfare Department and the educationsecretaries of the two states. The petition, under Article 32 of the Constitution (alleging violationof a fundamental right), was filed by counsel Mukesh Giri, on behalf of the UP-based Madaris-e-Arabia and the MP-based Adhunik Madarsa Kalyan Sangh. The petition alleged that the refusal of

the Centre and the two states to grant the necessary funds has resulted in a situation in which nosalaries have been paid to recently appointed teachers. It was also a gross violation of thepetitioners' rights under Article 14 (right to equality), Article 16 (right to equal opportunity) andArticle 21 (right to life), the petition said. The scheme for modernising madrassa education hasbeen on since 1993-94. (Hindustan Times 22/10/05)11. EDUCATION/ MINORITY EDUCATIONAMU to challenge HC order quashing minority status (11)New Delhi: AFTER A three days' long wait, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) officials havefinally received the copy of the judgement made by the Allahabad High Court stripping the varsityof its minority character by declaring the 50 per cent reservation of Muslims in post graduatemedical courses as void. To challenge the court's verdict, the varsity has decided to bank on theSection 5 (2) (c) of the AMU Act 1920, that was 'overlooked by the Court'. This section gives thevarsity the right to promote educational and cultural advancement of the Muslims of India. Takingabout the powers of the university in the AMU Act 1920, the Section 5 (2) (c ) clearly stated thatthe university has the power to "to promote especially the educational and cultural advancementof the Muslims of India." Speaking to The Pioneer from Aligarh, the AMU Registrar FaizanMustafa said, "This particular section of the Act clearly talks about the promotion of education ofMuslims of India. Our decision to reserve 50 per cent of the seats for the same was madekeeping in view this very power vested in us by the Act as how could education of Muslims ibepromoted without even re-jserving 50 per cent seats for jthem." He further said, "As the court hasnot said a word on It, we will challenge the de-'cision on this ground. However, we have notdecided whether to do it hi the divisional bench or in the Supreme Court." The AMU Vice-Chancellor Naseem Ahmad in a series of meeting with the senior varsity officials on Friday, hasgone through the judgement and tried to find out the loopholes in it to make varsity's stancestrong. The varsity is yet to get the certified copy of the judgement and the next legal move will bemade after the court re-opens on October 17. The court though has not quashed the AMUAmendment Act 1981 but has made observations on Section 2 (1) of the Act. The Act stated thatthe "university" means "the educational institution of their choice established by the Muslims ofIndia, which originated as the Mohammaden Anglo-Oriental college, Aligarh and which wassubsequently incorporated as the Aligarh Muslim University." (Pioneer 8/10/05)Bill to monitor religious propaganda in textbooks (11)NEW DELHI: The Union Human Resource Development Ministry is working on legislation to setup a National Textbook Council to monitor school textbooks produced outside the governmentsystem — including Shishu Mandirs/Vidya Bharati schools run by the Sangh Parivar andmadrasas — as recommended by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). Though stillunder consideration, the Ministry is planning to arm the proposed Council with executive powersto ensure that its recommendations carry weight and do not remain on paper alone. The draftlegislation is ready and has been sent to the National Council of Educational Research andTraining to secure legal opinion. Some penal provisions are being considered though the Ministryis still working on the modalities of implementing them. Given the way the Indian educationsystem is structured where the Government does not have a direct interface with schools, thepenal provisions will in all likelihood be implemented through affiliating boards. Another issue thatthe Ministry is grappling with pertains to textbooks within the government stream. A case in pointbeing the Gujarat Government school history books which eulogise Hitler. By and large, theMinistry has accepted the recommendations of the CABE committee, headed by historian ZoyaHasan, in toto. The Council, as per the draft, will be an autonomous and independent body. It willdouble up as a forum where citizens can register complaints. The CABE Committee hadadvocated a Textbook Council after it found that textbooks used in schools run by religious andsocial institutions contained a great deal of communal propaganda material. The CABEcommittee scanned textbooks used by Vidya Bharati schools, including Shishu Mandirs, andmadarsas across 11 States. It also examined textbooks brought out by private publishers. (TheHindu 20/10/05)

Modi ‘ignores’ concern on textbook glorifying Hitler (11)New Delhi: At a time when the government is contemplating setting up a textbook council tomonitor contents, here is how the states can completely disregard it. More than three monthsafter HRD minister Arjun Singh wrote to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi about"objectionable" contents in the social studies state textbooks, the latter has chosen to remainsilent. Within days of news reports about the contents of the state textbooks, Singh on July 28wrote to Modi expressing "concern" especially to "laudatory references to Hitler". Singh alsowrote: "I am saddened that there is no reference to Ma-hatma Gandhi and others who fought forfreedom..." So far, Modi has not replied and HRD sources feel he is not likely to join issue.Education being a concurrent subject, sources say, the Centre cannot intervene. The class IXsocial studies textbook, brought out by the Gujarat Textbook Board in 2005, does not mention theholocaust and instead glorifies Hitler. The book says, "Hitler adopted aggressive policy and ledthe Germans 'towards ardent nationalism...In thinking of Nazism, there is coordination ofnationalism and socialism," and that "due to severe nationalism of Italy and Germany and theiraggressive policy, the nations of the world thought of forming groups..." (Times of India 22/10/05)Rajasthan marches ahead in computer education (11)JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Government has signed four more MoUs under public-privatepartnership in computer education to carry forward its "Education Initiative" launched early thisyear. The signatories include Intel, GeSCI and American Indian Federation, which will help theState in computer education of the girl child, training of the teachers and in overall improvementin the educational standards. Rajasthan, which took the plunge at the meeting of the WorldEconomic Forum in Davos this year by adopting the pattern of the Jordan Education Initiative inuniversalisation of computer education, has already signed similar agreements with Microsoft,Asim Premji Foundation, and Hall in the Wall, among others. The new MoUs were signed on thesecond day of the two-day meeting of the Rajasthan Education Initiative, attended by K.Kasturirangan, chairman of the sub-group on human resource development of the EconomicPolicy and Reforms Council and representatives of the World Economic Forum and GeSCI(Global e School and Community Initiative), in the presence of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.Addressing the meeting, Ms. Raje expressed the hope that the spread of computer literacy wouldbring about social changes besides ushering in overall economic development in the State. Sheappealed to NGOs to take up a participatory role in the initiative. Talking to media persons,Education Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari said that with the latest agreements as many as 18districts of Rajasthan had been covered under the Education Initiative. "Rajasthan is the firstState to take such an initiative. Computer application would be made a part of day-to-day life withthe younger generation in the State," he said. (The Hindu 23/10/05)NCERT overhaul done secretively, hurried through (11)New Delhi, October 26: UNHAPPY WITH the lack of sufficient public debate before the NCERT'snew syllabus was approved, the CPM plans to take up the issue with the government. CPMgeneral secretary Prakash Karat is likely to meet HRD Minister Arjun Singh soon to discuss themanner in which the syllabus -- submitted to the ministry on Tuesday - was prepared. CPMsources said the party was "hurt" that the process of preparing the syllabus had bordered on thesecretive. CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury said, "There was not sufficient public debatebefore the syllabus was approved. We want an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure thattextbooks are not distorted. We'll raise the issue with government." A Leftist academic saidmembers of the monitoring committee were just given two days to study the 500-page documentby the NCERT. "It's impossible that such a document can be objectively considered in two days,"he said. "Moreover, in the monitoring committee, there was no real debate, as only a few hourswere given to the 15 members to discuss the mammoth document." Not having received a copyof the syllabus so far, other Left parties too have objected to the manner in which the syllabuswas approved. D. Raja, all-India secretary, CPI, said he planned to ask the HRD minister for acopy at a meeting on Wednesday evening. "The meeting is for something else but I'll be askinghim for a copy of the final document," Raja told HT. Though he had no immediate opinion to offer- not having seen the document - he said some academicians were not happy and "there couldhave been some more debate". (Hindustan Times 27/10/05)

History books court controversy again (11)New Delhi : Reference to plundering Jats, beef-eating Brahmins hurts sentiments-------- The DelhiHigh Court has asked the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) toexplain why its history textbooks be not withdrawn for carrying objectionable content against theBrahmin and Jat community of the country. The issue came up for consideration after the AryaJat Mahasabha and former deputy mayor Mahesh Chandra Sharma filed separate applications ina public interest litigation pending before court. The petitioners alleged that the history textbooksintroduced by NCERT for Class VI-XII sought to show the Brahmin and Jat communities in a badlight. While Jats were depicted as plunderers, Brahmins were shown sacrificing cows and beingbeef eaters. In his application, Mr Sharma alleged that in the Class XI history textbook, written byRam Sharan Sharma, there was a specific reference to the Brahmin community who wereaccused of sacrificing cows on a large scale. Further in a Class VI history book, authored byhistorian Romila Thapar it was written that Aryans and Brahmins offered beef to guests as a markof honour. This had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus for whom the cow is a sacred animal.The Division Bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma while taking cognizanceof these facts asked the NCERT to respond within four weeks. The court had earlier issuednotices to NCERT, the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Union Ministry for HumanResources Development, after a petition was filed by five persons who challenged the NCERT'sdecisions to come out with revised textbooks. (Pioneer 27/10/05)Rs. 115 crore for improving quality of schools (11)New Delhi: Government on Thursday announced a revised scheme for qualityimprovement in schools with a plan outlay of Rs 115 crore that would allow flexiblespending on specific projects related to environment orientation, introduction of yoga,awareness of population education and preparation and participation in InternationalScience Olympiad. The National Council of Educational Research and Training(NCERT) has been tasked to implement the projects. The cabinet committee on economicaffairs (CCEA) approved the component of improving science education in schools, tobe transferred to state governments and Union territories as state sector schemes, I&Bminister and cabinet spokesman S Jaipal Reddy told reporters. The allocation of Rs 5crore made by the Planning Commission for the new scheme for educational librarieswould also be utilised for science education, he said. Funds would be allocated toNCERT for four heads of environment orientation to school education, nationalpopulation education project, introduction of yoga in school and International ScienceOlympiad in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and informatics, he said. Hosteland other construction activities would be deleted from the list of items for financingyoga programmes in schools, he said. The implementation of the revised scheme wouldexpedite the enhancement of quality education in government and government-aidedschools and would enable NCERT to have reasonable flexibility in operation of thescheme, Reddy said. (Times of India 4/11/05)Welfare schemes to ride national literacy campaign (11)NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 7: The Rural Employment Guarantee (REG) Act and otherwelfare schemes of the government will be propagated through the national literacycampaign, officials of the Human Resource Development Ministry said. The plan is partof efforts to expand the scope of the campaign beyond reading and writing skills. “TheNational Literacy Mission (NLM) targets to achieve 75 percent literacy by 2007. Thoughthe positive side- effects of the campaign—such as the increasing preference for smallfamilies—is never quantified, it is as significant as the statistical targets,” said an official.

The official said the ministry was considering preparing study material for neo-literateson topics such as REG, right to information and legal literacy. Initially, it will cover thecontinuing education segment of the campaign. The official said the initiative wouldbenefit the implementation of the bill as well as the NLM. “More people will bemotivated to stay on in the learning track since they get to learn something that will maketheir life better. They will learn what they are entitled to under the REG and how to useit. An increase in public awareness will lead to better utilisation of the Act,” the officialpointed out. The 200 districts covered by the REG have the lowest literacy rates in thecountry. Of 600 districts, 238 have entered the continuing education phase of the NLM,in which neo-literates are helped to retain their learning and to develop their productiveskills. One of the original aims of the NLM is to make “people aware of the causes ofdeprivation,” and to seek corrective measures. With the focus often being in adding moreliterates, aspects such as these get lower priority,admit officials. The success of the NLMin terms of raising public awareness on social issues such as gender equality, smallfamily norm etc., has been tremendous. (Indian Exp 8/11/05)Schools can deny admission even if seats vacant: HC (11)NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 7: THE Delhi High Court today ruled that school managementswere at liberty to deny admission to a student seeking a particular stream, eventhough seats are vacant, as long as the action "is not discriminatory". Making it clear that"an administrative decision does not always require a statutory sanction," Chief JusticeMarkandey Katju and Justice Madan B. Lokur said, "The school is free to take such apolicy decision as it deems fit for maintaining its standards and reputation." Whilepronouncing the judgement on an appeal filed by Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, thedivision bench set aside an earlier order passed by a single judge bench. Justice VikramjitSen had ruled in 2004 that schools could not deny admission to students in a particularstream as long as the seats are vacant. The division bench held that the order amounted tointerference in the internal administration of schools to regulate allocation of streamsbased on merit. Justice Sen's judgement came on a petition by a DPS student who wasdenied admission to the Science stream in Class XI for his "inadequate" marks, thestudent, who secured an overall percentage of 65.20 with 60 per cent in Science andMathematics in his Class-X Board Examinations, was instead offered a seat either inCommerce or Humanities. Hearing the student's plea, the single judge bench had directedDPS to admit him in Class-XII in Science. (Indian Exp 8/11/05)In NCERT book, insulin ‘promotes’ blood sugar (11)New Delhi: Male hormone testosterone promotes respiration while estrogen — thefemale reproductive hormone — helps in blood circulation. These aren't some fancyresearch findings but contents of NCERT's science textbook that your child may bereading in school. The book, Science and Technology — Textbook for Class VII, is solittered with basic errors that teachers in the Capital find it hard to use it as a guide forteaching. According to the textbook, insulin promotes blood sugar in the body; the fact is,it controls blood sugar. Not surprisingly, the medical fraternity in the city is not amused.Doctors have taken strict umbrage at these errors. Said Dr Nalin Nag, senior consultant,internal | medicine, Apollo Hospital: "There is a lot of inadequate, sporadic and wrong

information in the book. When these kids grow up and are told otherwise, they wouldn'tknow what to believe."There are other less obvious mistakes as well. According to the book, testosterone andestrogen 'control' the development of secondary sexual characters in males and females,respectively 'Actually, the two reproductive hormones promote the development ofsecondary sexual characters in men and women. To say that they control them, isincorrect," said Ranjana Chaturvedi, a science teacher.Another science teacher, Richa Bhatia, of Modern School, pointed out other errors: "Thebook says that marasmus is a protein-deficiency ailment, while it actually occurs due tothe deficiency of both protein and carbohydrates in the body" (Times of India 8/11/05)Unesco spells out primary concern (11)NEW DELHI, Nov. 9. — Unesco's Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006 haspainted a grim picture of universal primary education in India, Pakistan and China. Asmany as 47 countries have already achieved universal primary education and 20 more arelikely to do so by 2015, but 23 countries, including India, are at the risk of not achievingthe target, the Unesco India director, Mr Minja Yang, said while releasing the report heretoday. "Whatever improvements India make would have a larger impact on the worldeducation scenario because of the huge number of illiterates in the country," he pointedout. According to the report, there are 771 million people above 15 years (adultilliterates) in the world who can't read or write any language. India and China account fornearly half of them (46 per cent to be precise). But India's share at 261 million is muchlarger than 87 million of China. And 54 per cent of all adult illiterates in India arewomen. "Governments and aid agencies give insufficient priority and finance to youthand adult literacy programmes," the report said. The report paints a grim scenario ofchildren's education. Ipsays over 100 million children around the world are not enrolledin schools and 55 per cent of them are girls. The report, which is based on 2001-2 data ofgovernments, says there is significant progress towards the Dakar goals (the goals agreedby states at the Dakar summit) and the Millennium Development Goals on education.(Statesman 10/11/05)Freeship can't be forced on all schools’ (11)New Delhi: The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday, made it clear that the directorate ofeducation cannot force the schools to reserve 20% free seats for the underprivileged iftheir lease condition does not specify it. Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharmasaid in such a case, the school should prepare a policy voluntarily. Although the judgesdid not pass any order or direction, they were also of the view that it was not a feasiblesuggestion make children from the underprivileged society study with those coming fromthe upper strata of the society. "Instead of helping them, you would be harmingthem," the judges opined. They told the petitioner's advocate Ashok Aggarwal to suggestanother alternative through which such children can be imparted proper education and donot have to study in a competitive environment. The bench asked the committee,comprised during the last date of hearing, to hold a meeting again and work out on theproposal for educating underprivileged children. The committee has been granted 15 daystime to work out on a proposal. It is headed by the chief minister and has been asked to

pursue the proposals which various private schools have submitted to them. (Times ofIndia (10/11/05)Social control of education needed: Brinda Karat (11)KANNUR: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat saidhere on Friday that there was a need to put pressure on the United Progressive AllianceGovernment to bring in legislation to ensure that higher education came under socialcontrol. Ms. Karat, who was inaugurating the State conference of the Students Federationof India (SFI), said the Left parties would exert pressure on the Government to bring inlegislation to ensure proper admission policies that would "reverse" the Supreme Courtjudgment that abolished quotas in unaided professional colleges. For social control ofeducation a Constitutional amendment could be introduced Ms. Karat said the apex courthad become an advocate of the neo-liberal policies that sought removal of social controlsand reservation. "The Supreme Court judgment has to be challenged because it is againstthe Constitutional spirit of affirmative action for bringing social justice to themarginalised people." While saying that retreat of the state from social sectors was one ofthe basic principles of neo-liberal policies, she called on students to continue their battleto save education for the masses from the assault of the neo-liberal policies and to asserttheir democratic rights. The process of capitalism in the education sector had increasedinequality. "Today there are two worlds with huge differences and contrasts." The bestfacilities could be availed only by those who had money even in developed countries. Itwas this reality of the two worlds in India that forced so many young people to commitsuicide. Neo-lib-eralism was based on the needs of the market and there should be aconcerted struggle against privatisation and commoditisation of education, she said. (TheHindu 12/11/05)Survey on impact of Govt spending on education (11)New Delhi : To keep the authorities under a pressure for desirable outcome onelementary education campaign, a Mumbai-based NGO on Friday launched its survey onthe "impact of Government spending on education". According to Dr M Chavan, directorof Mumbai-based NGO, Pratham, what actually spurred the decision has been theoutcome of a dipstick survey in at least one district of all States, last year. The surveyreport showed dismal outcomes like boys and girls within the age group of 7-10 could notread words, 60 per cent could not write simple sentences and 75 percent of these boysand girls could solve subtraction problems. Incidentally, Pratham submitted its last yeardipstick report to the Planning Commission with suggestions. Backed by the experienceof dipstick survey, the group, this year, decided to conduct Annual Status of EducationReport (ASER) 2005 in a much focussed manner. Under the process, they would cover575 districts, 11,000 villages 230,000 households and 600,000 children. Prominent NGOsare linked up with the process. "Our goal is to launch both a people's movement toinculcate in them the spirit to demand education as basic right of every child," said DrChavan. "The Government has several schemes for promoting and funding elementaryeducation. We want to see the outcome of Government spendings," the NGO said. "Letthere be a citizens' audit on how fund is being spent on these schemes," the NGO officialsadded. (Pioneer 14/11/05)

Minorities panel wants govt board on madarsa curriculum (11)New Delhi, November 13: Delhi Minorities Commission wants the Delhi Government totake steps to introduce modern curriculum in traditional madarsas, making use of acentrally funded scheme. The Commission had recommended recently to the governmentin this regard after the Uttar Pradesh government set up a madarsa board to introduce amodern curriculum in the madarsas there. Madarsa boards have also been set up inMadhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Commission some months ago expressed concernover the Delhi Government not taking steps to set up a madarsa board, which ismandatory for introducing a modern curriculum in madarsas. The Commission expressedregrets that there has been no response from the education department in this regard.Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit when asked about the recommendations, said: ‘‘The idea isvery good. But let us work on it,’’ she said. The modernisation scheme is centrallyfunded and about Rs 160 crore has been set aside for this purpose under the Tenth Plan.‘‘Delhi, however, has not benefited from this scheme as it has not taken any step so far tooperationalise the scheme in Delhi madarsas,’’ a note of the Commission addressed to thePrincipal Secretary Delhi Government read. It was further cited provision 10 (b) of theDelhi Minorities Commission Act, which mandates the panel with the responsibility ofmonitoring ‘‘the implementation of the policies and schemes of the government for thewelfare of the minority communities.’’ (Indian Exp 14/11/05)NGO to survey rural studies (11)New Delhi, Nov. 15: In the wake of danger that India might fail to achieve qualityuniversal elementary education by its 2010 deadline, Pratham, a social developmentorganisation, focusing on elementary education in 12 states has launched a people’smovement ASER 2005 (Annual Status of Education Report 2005) to monitor the impact ofeducation spending. Nearly six lakh children in 2.4 lakhs households from 12,000 villagesin 600 rural districts will be surveyed to prepare the Annual Status of Education Report2005 to be released in the third week of January 2006. Leading NGOs, people’sorganisations and individuals have joined hands to conduct a district-by-district survey inthe country. "It is important to understand the impact of various education schemes that theUnion and state governments are undertaking. Between November 11 and December 18,volunteers will visit villages randomly picked in each district and survey 20 households,"said Dr Madhav Chavan, director programmes at Pratham. Testing tools facilitating rapidevaluation have been devised by Pratham to be used on a large scale. In each household,children in the age-group 6-14 years will be tested for basic reading, writing, arithmetic.Based on the report ASER will rank states and districts every year for the next five yearsuntil 2010 for achieving quality universal elementary education. Following the 2005 report,the groups will interact with state and district governments. (Asian Age 16/11/05)UPA CMP is new Class XII lesson (11)NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 15: Students of Class XII should get ready for some reallyboring stuff. From next year, they will have to study the Common Minimum Programme ofthe United Progressive Alliance. The ruling coalition’s functional blueprint will be part oftheir political science syllabus. It is part of the text, ‘Politics in India since Independence,’which will be out in March. When contacted, the chief advisor of the Political Science

Committee on Syllabi for the NCERT, Prof Suhas Palshikar, told The Indian Express thatthis was done to ‘‘explain to the students what a manifesto of a coalition looked like.’’However, the opposition coalition’s manifesto finds no such mention. The new syllabus hasalso a lot of notable omissions. While the previous one had mentioned Kargil war, the newone has not. Why was Kargil left out? ‘‘The new books are based on a different approachwherein stress is being laid on processes than events,’’ said Krishna Kumar, director,NCERT. Palshikar, who heads the political science department at Pune University, saidKargil was left out because it was not a full-fledged war. Kumar said the focus wasthematic and not topical and hence, there were bound to be different viewpoints (IndianExpress 16/11/05)Govt panel for law on minority educational institutions (11)NEW DELHI, NOV 16: A standing committee that studied issues relating to minorityeducation has called for an ‘‘over-arching’’ legislation that can ‘‘spell out the details ofthe minorities’ right to establish and administer educational institutions’’, provided in theConstitution. The report will be discussed in a meeting of the National MonitoringCommittee for Minorities Education (NMCME) on Thursday. Union HRD MinisterArjun Singh will chair the meeting. The call for a separate legislation is against thebackdrop of the recent Allahabad HC verdict which reversed the minority status of theAMU. The AMU and the Ministry of HRD have appealed against the single benchverdict. The report said the present Madarsa modernisation scheme is a failure and calledfor its scrapping. Instead, it suggested setting up a Central Madarsa Board that willestablish Madarsa Schools in which students could join after finishing religiouseducation. This will give uniformity and quality to Madarsa educations across thecountry, the report suggested. The NMCME has also suggested separate schools, collegesand hostels for girls funded by the state and central governments to improve theeducational status of Muslim women. It also appealed to the government for setting up aRevolving Scholarship Fund for minority students. The report said various policies andprogrammes for minorities education have been ‘‘inadequately and incompletely’’implemented. ‘‘There is a lamentable lack of understanding of the problems of theminorities among the bureaucracy at various levels.’’ The NMCME said officials incharge of such programmes should get ‘‘thorough orientation about the purpose andjustification of the programmes.’’ The report has called for special coaching forbackward and minority students who prepare for civil services. Noting that these sectionsare represented ‘‘abysmally low’’ in civil services, the report said such centres should beassociated with IITs/IIMs so that students can get the best of training for competitiveexams. (Indian Exp. 17/11/05)Legal aspect of minority quota will be considered (11)New Delhi, Nov. 17: Union minister for human resources development Arjun Singh onThursday said that the Centre would consider reservation for minority students ininstitutions like IIT, IIFT and IIM only after looking at various legal aspects. Theminister said that the issue has to be discussed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.The HRD ministry would also have a proper look into the Sarva Shiksha Abhigyan sinceit was apparently not benefiting the minority community. With the Allahabad high courtstriking down the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University, the national monitoring

committee for minority education (NMCME) met on Thursday to discuss how to improveeducation for minorities, including reservations at IIT, IIM and IIFT. The meetingchaired by the HRD minister discussed various recommendations put forth by thestanding committee of NMCME, including legislation encompassing the entire range ofeducational rights of minorities. Making it clear that the ministry would consider thesuggestions, Mr Singh said, "One has to take care of public interest. However, since thesuggestions have been put forwarded by the monitoring committee, I certainly feel theyshould be considered." The committee suggested that since the number of minoritystudents was falling in IITs, IIMs and IIFT, there was a need for reservation for minoritystudents. (Asian Age 18/11/05)Bid to improve quality of school education (11)NEW DELHI: Emphasising the need to work on a quality assurance mechanism for instructionand learning resources, Union Human Resources Development Minister ArjunSingh said on Saturday that the Government is committed to using Infrastructure andCommunications Technology (ICT) for national and regional developments in all 53countries of the Africa Union. Delivering the inaugural address at the InternationalConference on Open Learning and Distance Education organised by the InternationalCouncil for Open and Distance Education and the Indira Gandhi National OpenUniversity (IGNOU), Mr. Singh informed the 300-strong delegation from 30 countriesthat this would be done through tele-education with one teaching end located on theUniversity campus. "We are committed to weeding out sub-standard system of educationand the Distance Education Council, will, I hope soon be an independent authority tocontrol and monitor all forms of open education," the Minister said. Noting that theGovernment was committed to improving the quality of school education and providingaccess to the disadvantaged communities in the rural and tribal areas through the RajivGandhi Project on EduSat-supported Elementary Education, the Minister said the Hindimedium project would help develop value-added ICT-enabled educational software andensure its dissemination for improving the quality of education of children and teachers."Nearly 12 satellite interactive terminals and 850 receive only terminals are beingestablished, and nearly 900 teachers are being trained as master trainers. IGNOU has alsosuccessfully experimented with FM radio stations and interactive radio counselling. (TheHindu 20/11/05)NCERT’s new syllabus covers controversial political issues (11)NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 20: With the new school syllabus approved after longdrawncontroversies, the National Council for Educational Research and Training(NCERT) has speeded up the preparation of textbooks. Textbook writing committees forall subjects were already in place even as the curriculum framework was being hotlydebated. The school textbooks will be replaced in three phases—Classes I, III, VI, IX andXI will have new text books next academic year, Classes II, IV, VII, X and XII in 2007-08, Classes V and VIII, in 2008-09. The NCERT said the approach of the new syllabusand textbooks are to make the learner an active participant in learning rather than being amere recipient of knowledge as a finished product. The new syllabus, therefore, hasproposed text books in an innovative format. For instance, the section on nationalism inClass XI political science course will discuss questions such as ‘‘How are the boundaries

of a nation defined? Must every nation have a state? What demands can a nation make onits citizens? What is the basis of the right to self-determination?’’ The one on secularismwill even ask the question—‘‘Is secularism suitable for India?’’ besides elaborating‘‘why do we need secular state in modern times?’’ A departure from the previous patternin which textbooks talked in definitive terms, the new format that intends to raisecuriosity among students is bound to raise some controversies too. However, NCERT’sbiggest challenge is to ensure objectivity and impartiality in treating some of the mostcontroversial political issues in the course ‘‘Politics in India since Independence,’’ forClass XII. (Indian Express 21/11/05)Now Ayodhya, Godhra for school textbooks (11)NEW DELHI: Nearly 13 years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Ayodhyatemple dispute is set to find its way into school textbooks along with the much talkedabout Godhra riots in Gujarat. For the first time, school children will get to study in theclassroom two momentous events that resulted in a great deal of tension and disharmonyacross the country. To be introduced as part of the new Class XII political science syllabiannounced recently by the National Council of Educational Research and Training(NCERT), the move has already sparked murmurs of protest from Right-wingspokespersons who see the additions as an attempt to malign the Bharatiya Janata Party'simage. The new books are to be introduced from the 2007-2008 academic year. The twoevents will be discussed under Chapter X titled "Recent Issues and Challenges" that willlook at various issues including challenges and responses to globalisation, the neweconomic policy of the Government and opposition to it, rise of other backward classes inNorth Indian politics, and Dalit politics in the electoral and non-electoral arena. Althoughthe recently-introduced history textbooks have come in for criticism even from the Leftcamp, the inclusion of communalism in textbooks is being seen by many scholars andacademicians as a long overdue change. "It is very important. There was a proposal atone time in the 1990s, when Mr. Arjun Singh was a Minister at the Centre, to introducecontemporary history up to Ayodhya, but that did not happen. Considering there is reallyno mention of communalism in history books, even in sections dealing with the FreedomStruggle, this was needed," says historian Arjun Dev. (The Hindu 24/11/05)Educating the girl child: South beats North hands down (11)New Delhi: In what has by now become a familiar script, southern states haveoutperformed northern states in operational-ising Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas(KGBVs), an important component of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. These Vidyalayas areresidential schools at upper primary level for SC/ST/OBC and minority girls. While SSA,lauded as among the most successful government interventions in the field of education,is re-orienting itself to bring more and more marginal classes within the educationumbrella, lackadaisical implementation of KGBVs by northern states is affecting overallachievement. The difference between the north and south is almost civilisational. KGBVstarget 3,000 educationally backward blocks in the country where female literacy is belowthe national average and the gender gap is above the national average. The irony is thatthough northern states are well below the national average they are not interested in doinganything about it. For instance, out of 750 KGBVs to be set up 450 are already in place.

such certificates due to one reason or the other," the department observed. Officials estimatedthat the decision would help thousands of students to continue their education without anyfinancial restrains. Lovely hoped that the dropout rate would fall considerably following theremoval of red tapism and increase in the ceiling of income. (Hindustan Times 2/12/05)Where is education for all? Ask young MPs, MLAs (11)NEW DELHI: There are 5 lakh children living in 1,200 slums across the Capital with no access toschooling. As against the target of 230 new schools to be opened for 1.3 lakh children during theNinth Five Year Plan, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi opened only 92'Schools and enrolledonly 91,000 students. Nearly 80 per cent of the children who who have studied upto Class V fromMCD schools do not know how to read or write their names. These are some of startling facts thatemerged from a study carried out by Prof. James Tooley of University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,United Kingdom. The issue came up at a discussion on "Education for All" attended by youngMembers of Parliament and MLAs. The discussion, organised by the MP from New Delhi, AjayMaken, and the Centre for Civil Society, saw the participation of eminent citizens including theDelhi Education Minister, Arvinder Singh Lovely. The study concentrated on primary education inthe Capital that is largely handled by MCD. The young MPs who attended included Kuldeep Bishnoi,Deepindra Hooda, Sachin Pilot, Madhu Gaur Yaski, Jatin Prasad and Milind Deora. Prof.Tooley in his presentation emphasised upon the need to introduce the provision of educationvouchers to be given to poor students to enable them to attend the school of their own choice.The poor performing schools should be sub-contracted to teacher-management groups or a nongovernmentorganisation, funds should be linked to performance and entry regulations should beliberalised for entrepreneurs and NGOs to set up new schools in the Capital. Apart from Delhi, thestudy was also carried out in Hyderabad and the urban areas of Uttar Pradesh. (The Hindu3/12/05)‘Set rules for minority institutes’ (11)New Delhi, Dec. 6: A parliamentary standing committee has expressed apprehension overallowing minority educational institutions (MEI) seek affiliation to a university of their choice andsuggested some kind of restriction on geographical contiguity or state boundary for the purpose."Good and reputed universities may face problems because all the MEIs would generally preferto be affiliated to the best ones," the committee said in its report. Although this choice of MEIswould be limited by the provisions in the acts, statutes and rules of the universities, some kind ofrestriction regarding geographical contiguity or state boundary must be provided in the NationalCommission for Minority Educational Institutes (Amendment) Bill 2005, it said. The bill seeks toamend the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004, which provided toset up a commission to advise the Central or state government on any issue relating to theeducation of institutes' minorities that may be referred to it. The committee also felt that the billmust provide adequate safeguards for preventing the misuse of the "minority status" by aninstitution. However, in a dissenting note, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) questioned the mannerin which such far-reaching amendments were being introduced. He cautioned that some suitableprovision needed to be incorporated to ensure that any particular institutions seeking protectionand affiliation under the act might not become a front of some terrorist organisations. (Asian Age7/12/05)US edition of textbook row (11)Washington, December 7: THE CONTROVERSY over Indian history textbooks has travelled tothe US. So much so, California is currently witnessing a raging battle between pro-Hindutvagroups and "secular" academics over textbooks on Indian history presented to "impressionableminds" in the US. The pro-Hindutva groups are in the forefront of a campaign to revise thetextbooks on the ground that they show ancient India in poor light and single out Hinduism for"bias, distortions and prejudicial treatment". The "secular" formation, on the other hand, hasplunged into the battle with equal fervour, warning the California Board of Education (CBE)against making revisions of "a religious-political nature". Among issue whipped up in this battleare the reported projections about ancient India, the Aryan invasion, the caste system and thestatus of women in India. Faced with the clashing viewpoints of the two formations, the CBE is

still to make public the nature and extent of revisions that it proposes to make in the books onIndian history and culture for students in grades six to eight. On Wednesday, the Hindu groupscharged the CBE with going back on the recommendations made by an expert it had appointed togo into the controversy — Shiva Bajpai of California State University, Northridge. The rival groupis led by Michael Witzel, an American professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University, and has thesupport of a number of academicians including Indian historians Romilla Thapar, D.N. Jha andShereen Ratnagar. (Hindustan Times 8/12/05)Move to provide education to Muslim girls (11)NEW DELHI: Even as educationists pin their hopes on the proposed Bill for Free and CompulsoryEducation to ensure all children get to school, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)has decided to take an unlikely spiritual route to educating girls from the Muslim community. Anambitious attempt at reaching out to Muslim girls who never make it to regular schools, the NIOShas now tied up with madrassas in Uttar Pradesh to offer its academic and vocational coursesalong with the religious teachings given by them. As per the agreements reached with theMadrassas, students will also be able to do the NIOS courses now, with the Madrassas doublingup as their study centres. "We have already sent our teams to different parts of Uttar Pradesh totalk to religious heads and heads of Madrassas. Our message was very clear. All we told themwas that we don't want to bring about a change in their basic teaching character. All we wantedwas that along with the curriculum that they teach students, the Madrassas also incorporate ourcourses, so that the girls are able to learn the latest syllabus and studies,'' said NIOS secretary D.Singh Bist. And the results have been encouraging to begin with. While six Madrassas in theLucknow, Khatauli and Dubagga area of Uttar Pradesh have already started offering the OpenBasic Education course of the NIOS, three are teaching children the secondary level courses inLucknow, Khatauli and Malihabad. After its success in Uttar Pradesh, the NIOS is now looking atmaking a similar attempt in Bihar before moving on to other parts of the country. Although thestep is aimed at all Madrassa students, the NIOS feels that it will benefit girls the most as many ofthem don't even manage to get Madrassa education. (The Hindu 13/12/05)Rajasthan schools will learn lessons the hard way (11)Jaipur If the directives of the Rajasthan High Court were implemented in letter and spirit, theprivate schools in the State would be barred from taking donations for admission and at the sametime their fee structure would almost come at par with Government schools from the nextacademic session. The Justice PK Tiwari committee, formed by a bench of the High Court, in itsreport and recommendations has suggested that the Government should constitute a regulatoryauthority to keep a watch on the fee structure in private schools in the State. After receiving the322 page, the division bench comprising of Justice Yadram Meena and Justice Ajya Rastogi, hasdirected the Government to furnish details on how it would implement the decision, within sixweeks. At the same time, its has directed the Government to implement the recommendationsfrom the next academic session, as it may take time to constitute the regulatory body. The fivemembercommittee constituted by the court, after receiving a petition about six month back, hadstudied the fee structure of about 700 of the total 18,000 private and Government-aided schools.It came to the conclusion that they were charging exorbitant fee from the students and divertingtheir profits for business and other purposes. The committee said every school should get its feestructure approved by the Government and this should be made pre condition for recognition andfor getting the Government aid. They should be bound to submit their annual balance sheet toensure that no funds were being misused by these educational institutions, the committeeadded.As per the recommendation of the committee, private schools should not be allow tocharge more that Rs 200 as admission fee and registration amount should not accede to Rs 25.(Pioneer 15/12/05)Draft education Bill upsets schools (11)New Delhi: It has not yet been tabled in Parliament but the draft Right to Education Bill is alreadyfacing the ire of a cross section of people, from public schools, social organisations to its ownframers. Public schools, in particular, view it as an attempt to trespass their autonomy by granting"local authorities" (read MLAs and councillors) powers to ensure that 25% reservation for children

from economically weaker sections is met and also to monitor the prescribed infrastructure inthese schools. Questions are being raised about the academic competence of elected representativesand there are also apprehensions of the clause opening the floodgates of corruption. RK Maini, chairman of the Indian Progressive Schools Conference and principal Hyderabad PublicSchool Ramanthapur describes the bill as the "Right to Interference Bill." And Anil Sadagopal,who was a member of the committee that drafted the Bill, describes it as a ploy to "snatchwhatever rights there were to education." Sadgopal, who is also a member of the Central AdvisoryBoard for Education (CABE), says that the draft Bill has diluted the constitutionalcommitment to a common school system by diverting attention from the government'sconstitutional obligation to provide finances for education as under Article 21 A of the constitutionthat guarantees right to education, to the issue of 25% reservation in private schools. "This is justa ploy to take public attention away from the deplorable infrastructure in government schools,"Sadgopal says. His protests apparently were brushed away with the logic that CABE is just anadvisory body and the government is free to take or reject its advice. (Times of India 17/12/05)34% of world's adult illiterates are in India (11)New Delhi, Dec. 20: "The governments of developed and developing nations have 'prioritised'elementary education at the expense of adult literacy," said the Asia launch of the InternationalBenchmark Study on Quality Adult Literacy — "Writing the Wrong." In spite of the staggeringnumber of illiterate adults, state investments in literacy programmes have dropped off sharply inthe last two decades, revealed the study. A panel discussion on the study, organised byeducational experts from National Coalition for Education, ASPBAE, GCE and JNU, was held inthe capital on Monday. The discussion revealed the myths existing on the issue of "adult literacy,"that have resulted in gross violation of the rights of millions of adults and representation ofunacceptable costs to society. "Official figures reveal that 872 million adults in the world areclassified as illiterate of which two thirds are women. Of the world's adult illiterates 34% are inIndia alone." Countering these scandalously high figures, experts revealed, "Sample tests onactual reading and writing skills in fact, double the illiteracy rate from those reported by thegovernments." The panel of experts consisted of GCE president Kailash Satyarthi, JNU Prof. S.Y.Shah, Dr L.D. Mishra, former labour secretary Prof. C.J. Daswani and Dr A. Mathew of Unesco.(Asian Age 21/12/05)Minority colleges can now 'mint money' (11)New Delhi : Education quota Bill passed by Lok Sabha ----- The Constitution amendment Billproviding reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in unaided private educationalinstitutions was passed in Lok Sabha on Wednesday almost unanimously. An amendment movedby BJP deputy leader VK Malhotra seeking inclusion of minority institutions under its purview wasdefeated with 272 voting against and 110 in favour The BJP, which strongly contended thatleaving minority institutions out of its ambit would harm the cause of the weaker sections andbrought an amendment, however, announced before voting in the House that it would support theBill. The Government promptly expressed gratitude to all the members of Parliament forsupporting this important Bill. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi hoped theBill would meet a similar fate in Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The 104th amendment Bill waspassed with 379 votes in favour, one against it and one abstaining. The Constitution amendmentBill requires the presence of two-third members yet despite most parties issuing whips, only 381members were present against the present strength of 522. Despite this, a strong view emergedduring the debate about inclusion of minority institutions within the ambit of the Bill. Memberscutting acr-oss party lines argued against giving a free run to minority institutions and even Leftmembers advocated a mechanism to monitor and regulate admissions and fees in suchinstitutions. Many members also sought clarity on protecting the interests of Other BackwardCastes (OBCs). (Pioneer 22/12/05)School for poor kids faces demolition threat (11)JAIPUR: A school offering innovative education to children from poor families on the outskirts ofJaipur for more than a decade now faces the threat of demolition following a decision by theJaipur Development Authority (JDA) to allot the land, where the school is situated, to a private

university. Digantar, a voluntary organisation, has been running the Bandhyali School situatedbetween Kho Nagorian and Bhavgarh Bandhya villages since 1993, offering education throughself-learning method without examinations. It was established under a project financiallysupported by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development. The school is presentlyeducating over 300 children, belonging to marginalised sections of society such as Malis, Gujjarsand Muslims, free of cost. The JDA had asked for documents and fee on the school's applicationmade before 2000 for consideration of allotment of land to it. However, the JDA sent a notice tothe school recently asking it to vacate the land after reserving it for a private university. Digantar,while contending that its application was rejected without any valid reason, approached theRajasthan High Court, which directed the JDA to first consider the school's application. Theschool is presently functioning under a stay order of the High Court. The head of Digantar, RohitDhankar, said here on Wednesday that the organisation had no intention of grabbing theGovernment land and had been applying since 1997 for the allotment of land. Mr. Dhankar saidthe JDA's insistence on giving possession of the land to a private party would destroy an alreadyfunctioning educational institution for the poor. The school's closure would amount to a "violentdisruption" of the children's fundamental right to education and would display the Government'sinsensitivity to the community's considered opinion on the use of land in its midst, said Mr.Dhankar. Significantly, the private university had applied for the land much after the series ofapplications made by Digantar to the JDA. Mr. Dhankar said the JDA had to give convincingreasons to prefer the later applicant to the earlier one, especially when Digantar was inpossession of the land and was using it for public interest. (The Hindu 29/12/05)Funds diverted to RSS schools in Rajasthan: Opp (11)JAIPUR, Dec. 28. — SanctiorTof funds from the MLA-LADS (Local Area Development Scheme)to 'RSS-run' Adarsh Vidya Mandir Schools has created a political controversy in Rajasthan. Theopposition parties allege public welfare funds are being diverted for propagating communalagenda of the Sangh in these schools. Through a recent circular, the Vasundhara Rajegovernment has -amended the guidelines on the MLA-LAD scheme. Thus enabling the MLAs todonate up to Rs 10 lakh each to the schools run by the RSS under the banner of Vidya BhartiSociety. Under the MLA-LAD scheme, registered educational societies are entitled to a-donatibnof up to 10 lakh. But the opposition Congress alleges that the BJP government has amended thescheme to accommodate Vidya Bharti Schools that follow the communal agenda of the RSS . Aspokesperson of the Congress said following the amendment each of these schools run by theRSS can get a donation of up to Rs 10 lakh while other educational societies are entitled to onlyone time donation from the MLA-LAD scheme. "This decision is anti-constitutional as Vidya BhartiSchools which follow the communal agenda of the RSS have been singled out for the specialfavour under the scheme," the spokesperson said. The rural development minister, Mr Kalu LaiGurjar, however, defended the decision for inclusion of Vidya Bharti Schools for benefits underthe MLA-LADS. He claimed to have received several representations in the regard from theseschools. The Congress has submitted a memorandum with the governor Ms Pratibha Patil anddemanded the recovery of donations made by legislators to Vidya Bharti schools. (Statesman29/12/05)Ordinance likely to decide on minority education status (11)NEW DELHI: The Union Human Resource Development Ministry is planning to take the ordinanceroute to give the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions the power todecide on questions relating to the status of any institution as a minority educational institutionand cancel recognition if the situation so warrants. The Ministry is preparing a Cabinet note forpromulgating an ordinance to this effect as the recent discourse on the Constitution Amendmentto reserve seats for socially and educationally backward classes of citizens besides ScheduledCastes and Scheduled Tribes in private unaided educational institutions other than those run byminorities prised open the question on "who is a minority"; particularly in States such as Kerala.Add to this the issue of linguistic minorities. Protesting exemption of minority institutions from theambit of the Constitution Amendment, many political parties had sought a clear definition of theterm minority since it applies to both religious and linguistic minorities. Responding to thediscussion in Parliament, Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh had said appropriate remedial

measures would be taken if necessary. The Ministry's bid to hasten the process of empoweringthe Commission is billed as a step in this direction. Though The National Commission for MinorityEducational Institutions (Amendment) Bill — empowering the Commission with the power to drawup the parameters of who constitutes a minority and making several other amendments — wastabled in the Rajya Sabha in the monsoon session and the Cabinet had on December 15 cleareda fresh amendment proposed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, inability to get it passedin the winter session has made the Ministry consider the ordinance route. (The Hindu 31/12/05)