EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

London: Accusing the previous government of "tampering" with education, HRD minister Arjun
Singh has said the new government will undo the damage. "Unfortunately, during the last four to
five years, there has been a large-scale tampering with the syllabi. Therefore, it is natural we
would have to take a decision on the syllabi after a very careful consideration only. The review
would be done in the next eight to ten days," Singh said participating in a BBC Hindi special programme
Aapki Boat BBC Ke Saath broadcast on Sunday night. He said the new government
would stop attempts made by the previous government to "saffronise" education. "During the
previous government's tenure, various chief ministers had raised the syllabi issue in the Central
Advisory Board on Education (CABE). Instead of addressing the objections, NBA government
chose to make CABE a defunct body; its meeting has not taken place during last four years,"
Singh said, adding that he was committed to restoring the CABE, so that the "matters which used
to be raised democratically, are once again done in the same manner." (Times of India 1.6.04)
SC: State language can be made compulsory in minority schools (11)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that a state government can make learning of its
regional language compulsory even in linguistic minority schools in order to strengthen national
integration and cement the gap between different cultural segments in society. If a government
decided to make the state language, like Marathi in this case, a compulsory subject in the school
syllabi of a Gujarati school, it cannot be said to be violative of the fundamental right of the
minority community to establish and administer schools. It was appropriate for the linguistic
minority in a state to learn the regional language, the court said. "The resistance to learn the
regional language will lead to alienation from mainstream resulting in linguistic fragmentation
within the state, which is an anathema to national integration," a Bench of Chief Justice S
Rajendra Babu, Justices A R Lakshmanan and G P Mathur said. The Bench rejected an appeal
by a Maharashtra Gujarati school challenging the state's decision to make learning Marathi
mandatory in its schools. (Times of India 1.6.04)
2 nd June
New SCERT texts are vote bank history: Delhi BJP (11)
New Delhi, June 1: Referring to the recently-introduced SCERT history books by. the Delhi
government as vote bank history," Delhi BJP chief Harshvardhan demanded their "immediate"
withdrawal. Threatening an agitation otherwise, he charged that the Communists were making an
attempt to seize control of the academic centres with Congress' assistance. Claiming that despite
the SCERT books being qualitatively "inferior" to those published by NCERT under former Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's dispensation, he charged that Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit
was using political force to get them accepted. "After the UPA came to the power at the Centre
Ms Dikshit lost no time in rushing to the newly-appointed HRD minister, Mr Arjun Singh, to secure
legitimacy for her move," he said on Tuesday. (Asian Age 2.6.04)
Arjun: No reason in file for IIM fee cut (11)
New Delhi, June 1: Union human resources development minister Arjun Singh said he had gone
through the files relating to the decision to reduce the fees of the IIMs by the last government and
did not find a single reason in the files to justify this." In an interview to The Asian Age, Mr Singh
said the fee cut appeared to be "an action out of the blue, to get at these people, who were not
amenable to certain diktats, in a manner that would hurt them most. Now that has recoiled." The
minister said the primary concern of his ministry will be to assure the IIMs that their autonomy will
be respected and safeguarded. He said he sat through the meetings with the IIM heads on the
controversial fee issue "and made no suggestions" from his end so that they felt free to discuss
the issues at hand. He said all were agreed on a plan of action and whatever decision is taken
will be in keeping with the autonomous nature of these institutes. He said the approach had been
ad hoc and ham-handed and this had to be corrected. The minister was optimistic that the June
meeting would finally resolve the issue to the satisfaction of the IIMs. (Asian Age 2.6.04)
BJP sees red in de-saffronisation (11)