EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute
EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute
EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute
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een engaged to review the school books. Experts from the Ratan Tata Trust, along with Jean<br />
Aichison, from department of linguistics, and Teresa Smith, from department of social policy,<br />
Oxford, will visit Delhi schools to assess the response of students and teachers to the new books<br />
and suggest revisions and changes, if any. The panel will review all the textbooks, including<br />
English, Hindi, Maths and History. SCERT promises to incorporate all the changes recommended<br />
by the panel when it reprints books next year. The first feedback is expected in October. The Indradhanush<br />
series of Hindi-medium textbooks prepared by SCERT were recently prescribed in all<br />
Delhi government and Municipal Corporation-run schools. For all subjects, these books are for<br />
students from Class I to VIII. "We don't want any political party or government to raise fingers at<br />
us and say our books are n (Times of India 17.6.04)<br />
Politicians pocket 50% college fees in Mumbai (11)<br />
Mumbai, June 16: The engineering colleges owned mostly by politicians, have spent the fees<br />
collected "From students on every-thing except education. A perusal of the balance sheets of<br />
some of these institutions reveals that at least 50 per cent of the fees collected from students was<br />
used to pay the rent and maintenance of the college buildings. The colleges charge Rs 60,000 as<br />
a fee per student but only half the amount goes into creating better educational facilities for them.<br />
The Asian Age, on June 12 had reported on these institutions turning into profit making centres.<br />
The All India Federation of University and Colleges Organisation in its recent report has<br />
castigated these institutions on several counts including shortage of teachers. The K.B.P college<br />
of engineering at Satara, owned by the NCP leader and Union minister for food and agriculture<br />
Sharad Pawar, charges a fee of Rs 60,000 from each student. But the cost incurred by the<br />
college for providing education to one student is only Rs 23,764. A part of the balance amount is<br />
spent on paying rent and maintenance charge of the college building. Interestingly, the building is<br />
owned by the management and hence no amount is paid as rent. (Asian Age 17.6.04)<br />
Three men and your child’s history book (11)<br />
NEW DELHI, JUNE 16: LET'S not change school textbooks every five years, please." This is the<br />
refrain of the three historians appointed by the HRD ministry to suggest what should be done to<br />
NCERT's controversial history textbooks. In fact, one of them, Prof S. Settar, scholar of ancient<br />
history and the S. Radhakrishnan Visiting Professor at the National <strong>Institute</strong> of Advanced Studies<br />
in Bangalore, says he's not going to "pre-judge" anything and so does not know, for sure, "if<br />
changes at all would be needed." HRD Minister Arjun Singh's choice of the three panel members—Settar,<br />
Prof Barun De and Prof J S Grewal—has befuddled the Left which has been<br />
clamouring not just for a rewrite but for "withdrawal" of all existing NCERT books. Even followers<br />
of former Minister Murli Manohar Joshi's camp have not hit out at any of the three. Reason: none<br />
in the panel is among the usual suspects of "Marxist historians." What has helped is that none is<br />
from New Delhi where the line between academia and politics gets more blurred than anywhere<br />
else. (<strong>Indian</strong> Express 17.6.04)<br />
18 th June<br />
NCERT changes hue from saffron to red (11)<br />
New Delhi: Banned in the NCERT during Murli Manohar Joshi's tenure as HRD minister, Leftists<br />
are now returning to the research council. On Thursday, the new HRD minister, who is also<br />
president of the NCERT executive council, nominated four new members. Of the four, one was a<br />
CPM member till last month, while another was at the forefront of protests against Joshi's<br />
"saffronisation" of history books. Historian Mridula Mukherjee, professor of education in Delhi<br />
University Anita Rampal, poet Chandrakant Deotale and scientist M P Parmeswaran are now part<br />
of the executive council which governs NCERT. All decisions regarding NCERT are approved by<br />
this committee. (Times of India 18.6.04)<br />
Saffron sees red in books for schools (11)<br />
New Delhi/Lucknow: It is "saffron” Murli Manohar Joshi calling Arjun Singh red? Former HRD<br />
minister M M Joshi, charged with "communalising" education during his tenure, hit back at the<br />
new minister Arjun Singh accusing him of "communistising" school books. Irked with Singh who is<br />
trying to undo Joshi's ministerial task, Joshi said: "The UPA government seems to be bent upon
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