EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

Another TN school catches fire, none hurt (11)
Chennai, July 20: Barely did the nightmare of the Kumbakonam blaze end when yet another
school went up in flames at Sengunram village, about 30 km north of Chennai, on Monday
evening. The 45 children of the Nethaji Subhas Chandra Bose School had a providential escape
as they were at home after paying homage to the Kumbakonam school students, who had
perished in a blaze on Friday. All the schools in Tamil Nadu had observed a holiday on Monday
after holding prayer meetings in memory of the 90 students killed in the Kumbakonam blaze.
According to the police, the thatched shed on the terrace, housing two kindergarten classes
for 45 children, caught _,fire presumably due to an electric short-circuit and was completely
gutted. All the benches and other school furniture were destroyed in the fire, which was put out
by fire tenders with help from locals. The school officials too rushed to the spot. The state
government has ordered replacement of all thatched structures with non-inflammable
material in schools and July 30 is the deadline. "But for it being declared holiday ' in memory of
the victims of the Kumbakonam fire, our 'children would have been in the school when the
fire broke out," said a local resident. (Asian Age 21.7.04)
22 nd July
Joshi 'forgets' to return ICHR's Freedom files (11)
New Delhi: Twelve confidential files related to the prestigious "Towards Freedom" project of the
Indian Council of Historical Research taken by former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi on
March 9,2000, have gone missing. The files, No. 18-30/72-ICHR/Admn. in three parts, each
containing 170, 210 and 131 pages, were never returned despite a reminder by ICHR's then
member-secretary R C Agrawal to Joshi's PS Alok Tandon on August 19, 2002. The matter has
been brought to the notice of new dispensation in the HRD ministry and search for the files is on.
The .issue of the missing files resurfaced recently when ICHR chairperson D N Tripathi, a Joshi
appointee, wanted to revive the "Towards Freedom" project and asked for the files only to be told
these are missing for five long years. Much to Joshi's chagrin, Tripathi has asked the officiating
member-secretary A K Ambasth to recover the files. He says Joshi's office had no business to
keep files of an autonomous body for so long and not return them despite a reminder. "Unfortunately
all this happened in the earlier regime," Tripathi told TNN over phone from Gorakhpur.
According to him, the files of autonomous bodies are never kept by the administrative ministry. At
best, these could be shown to the ministry. (Times of India 22.7.04)
NCERT asked to review curriculum (11)
New Delhi, July 21: A day after the announcement that the "saffronised" history textbooks
introduced in Dr Murli Manohar Joshi's tenure as HRD minister will be out of schools in the next
academic session, the government on Wednesday asked the National Council for Educational
Research and Training to start work on reviewing the national curriculum framework to avoid
"distortions." Education secretary B.S. Baswan, in a letter to NCERT director H.P. Dixit, has
stated that "the NCERT may initiate action for curriculum renewal." The present curriculum
framework was released four years ago. The NCERT's executive committee, in its meeting on
Monday, had also expressed concern over the quality and content of textbooks other than in
history. It had stated that while the proposed curriculum framework review will take care of the
concerns in the medium term, it was important that all textbooks are subjected through a quick
review to take corrective steps wherever required. In his letter to the NCERT seeking initiation of
the review process, Mr Baswan asserted that the council may ensure that the processes as laid
down or that have evolved over a period of time, were not violated. "You are aware of the criticism
regarding the short-circuiting and the inadequacies of procedures followed during the
finalisation of the earlier review," he said, adding the textbooks of the NCERT had drawn serious
academic criticism during the last few years. (Asian Age 22.7.04)
NCERT asked to initiate action for curriculum renewal (11)
NEW DELHI, JULY 21. After bringing back the history textbooks replaced by the Murli Manohar
Joshi regime, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has initiated the process for a
review of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education brought out by the previous