EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

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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)
NEW DELHI, JUNE 1. The Bharatiya Janata Party today alleged that the Congress has "connived with the Communists" to impose a totally biased, anti-national and distorted perspective of India's history on students of the Capital that would soon spread to other parts of the country as well. In its first reaction to the Sheila Dikshit Government's decision to "de-saffronise" school textbooks in the Capital, the Delhi BJP president, Harsh Vardhan, claimed that the Congress-Communist alliance was trying to distort historical facts for the sake of "vote bank politics". These books were presented by the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, to the new Union Human Resources and Development Minister, Arjun Singh, on May 27. Referring to the textbooks prepared by the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Dr. Vardhan alleged that these carried the stamp of Marxism. He also distributed to the media a report prepared by an "unknown group of scholars" on SCERT textbooks. Pleading the case for continuing with National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks, Dr. Vardhan warned the Delhi Government that the party would launch an agitation to protect "true" history. "The vote bank history of the Congress-Communist alliance would be resisted in every nook and cranny of the country," he said. Claiming that the SCERT books were qualitatively inferior to the NCERT's, he alleged that these were full of factual errors. "The culture of rubbishing India's ancient glory, falsification of facts, undermining important events and over-emphasising on trivia, which characterises the history textbooks of West Bengal and Kerala, is being sought to be introduced in Delhi and the nation as a whole." (The Hindu 2.6.04) 3 rd June NCERT: Another Joshi man on his way out (11) New Delhi, June 2: WANTED: A new director for the NCERT. Candidate must have no saffron leanings and should be able to figure out how best to yet again revamp the school curriculum, without generating controversy. Close on the heels of the removal of a senior bureaucrat on Tuesday, the HRD ministry announced on Wednesday that it was looking for a new NCERT director. A spokesman said a search committee has been formed under the chairmanship of former UGC chief Prof. Yash Pal. The official reason is that present director Dr J.S. Rajput's term ends on July 13. Ministry officials, however, said this was clearly part of HRD minister Arjun Singh's "detoxification" agenda. "He (Rajput) would have certainly got an extension had the NDA government returned to power," a senior official said. Rajput was at the centre of controversy after the NCERT revamped its curriculum for schools. (Hindustan Times 3.6.04) 4 TH June SCERT books are full of errors (11) New Delhi, June 3: Q: If an Indian marries a foreigner, do you think the latter should be given status of Indian citizen or not? Explain., Q: What sort of rights can a foreigner get in India? Elaborate., Q: Also, ask your teachers about the conditions in which a citizen can lose "her" citizenship? These are the questions that all students of Class 7 studying in Delhi government-run schools will be compelled to answer from the current academic session. These questions have been raised in the third chapter of civic science of Class 7. The chapter talks about citizenship. The chapter talks extensively on the difference between a foreigner and a citizen of the country. Experts believe that by raising these questions, efforts have been made to distort the very concept of citizenship. The chapter talks more about the difference between an Indian and a foreigner, instead of discussing what is the meaning of the word citizen. Not only that, the book is full of grammatical errors. All references are made in feminine gender. Right from the beginning, the way chapters have been written, it seems that the writers are discussing about female citizens only. The books published by the State Council for Educational Research and Training will be distributed among all the students of the Delhi government-run schools. (Asian Age 4.6.04) 6 th June Compulsory teaching of regional language not a violation: Court (11) NEW DELHI, JUNE 5. The Supreme Court has held that a policy decision of a State that all schools must compulsorily teach the regional language of the State is not violative of the minority rights. A Bench, consisting of the Chief Justice S. Rajendra Babu (since retired), Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice G.P. Mathur, in a recent ruling said that "while living in a different State,
Page 1 and 2: EDUCATION - 2004 Compiled & Edited
Page 3 and 4: GUWAHATI, FEB. 4. The Axom Sarba Si
Page 5 and 6: Anger against profound illiteracy (
Page 7 and 8: The Central officials brought up a
Page 9 and 10: 8 th April 20% reservation likely i
Page 11 and 12: HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi no
Page 13 and 14: Secondary Education, the Union Publ
Page 15 and 16: New Delhi, May 22: The new human re
Page 17: y his ministry "which puts the stud
Page 21 and 22: agree with. "These books were not w
Page 23 and 24: handing over higher education to ma
Page 25 and 26: College, at a press conference here
Page 27 and 28: CABE, somewhat smaller in size had
Page 29 and 30: 'History of India can't be history
Page 31 and 32: Another TN school catches fire, non
Page 33 and 34: anch of a nationalised bank to that
Page 35 and 36: 11. The notices were issued after h
Page 37 and 38: the situation is the same in almost
Page 39 and 40: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has sought corpo
Page 41 and 42: transparent manner," the release ad
Page 43 and 44: anners inviting applications for ad
Page 45 and 46: shades of saffron and ask the autho
Page 47 and 48: function in his hometown of Vadnaga
Page 49 and 50: egarding minority education in the
Page 51 and 52: The evaluators compared learning le
Page 53 and 54: 9 th Nov. India again gets red grad
Page 55 and 56: other Central government institutes
Page 57 and 58: she added. According to sources, ex
Page 59: Bill on panel for minority bodies p

EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

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