India News
Drop-outs rising, buildings doddering, education targets getting larger
Mudda discusses pathetic situation in government schools on teachers Day, brainstorms for solutions eventhough teachers today no longer treat profession as calling
The present scenario of government-run schools, including their infrastructure and educational standard, has been moribund wherein children are not provided education contrary to governmental claims.
According to the Unified District Information System for Education report for 2016-17, there are 17.28 lakh schools while 11,577 schools buildings were in very bad shape, which could prove fatal for the students and teachers in case of a collapse. These schools need 45 lakh teachers while only 10 lakh are in service. More than nine lakh teaching positions are vacant only in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal while UP alone needs three lakh teachers. There are 17,602 schools and more than 10 percent schools have only one teacher.
There are 19.65 crore students in 14.5 lakh schools. The drop-out rate is alarming. The UN report says that if a similar trend continues it would be difficult to educate all by year 2030. According to the report, it would be difficult to meet the deadline of providing primary education to all by 2050, secondary education by 2060 and higher secondary education by 2085. Also, if the present trend continues, guardians will stop sending wards to government schools, the report said.
On the occasion of Teachers’ Day, APN chose to conduct a healthy debate on the grim situation in government schools during its flagship show, Mudda, on Wednesday.
The participants of the debate included Anand Sahu, leader of BJP, Onkar Singh, spokesperson of Congress party, Shailendra Kumar, Western UP Guardians’ Association, Dr Manoj Pandey, president of Lucknow University Associated Colleges Teachers Association (LUACTA), Dr RP Mishra, Secretary of UP Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh and Govind Pant Raju, consulting editor of APN. Anant Tyagi anchored the show.
Sahu said that our literacy ratio is much lower while the quality of education is a distant dream. He claimed that the present government has been working hard to improve the educational situation in the country. This cannot be changed overnight and it will take time to rectify effects of past misdeeds.
Onkar Singh said that the education system cannot be changed without strengthening the basic education. The educational infrastructure must also be improved, he asserted.
Shailendra Kumar Singh said the lack of proper infrastructure is a major hurdle to boosting the education system. He proposed why children cannot be provided with education under the open sky. He asked the government if it was indeed possible to educate children under leaking roofs.
Professor Saket Kushwaha, former Vice-Chancellor of Lakshmi Narayan University, said that it was necessary to motivate children and their parents about the importance of education. Parents should also be trained to reorient themselves in line with modern knowledge. Resources crunch should also be dealt with.
Raju said that teaching has become a mere job today, a means of earning money rather than a calling, leading to lack of responsibility and accountability.
—Compiled by MA Kazmi
India News
Tiger death toll reaches 10 in Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu
The death of the 10 tigers including 6 cubs has caused great controversy. The enviornmentalists are demanding a high level inquiry into the ongoing deaths of tiger in Mudumalai, a tiger reserve.
Ten tigers have died over 35 days in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu according to the National Tigers Commission. A team of National Tiger Commission crime Branch went to Ooty to investigate the matter. The team included Central Forest Animal Research Centre Senior Scientist Ramesh Krishna Murthy, Central Forest Animal Crime Prevention Unit South Zone Director Kripa Shankar and Inspector General Murali Kumar.
The death of the 10 tigers including 6 cubs has caused great controversy. The enviornmentalists are demanding a high level inquiry into the ongoing deaths of tiger in Mudumalai, a tiger reserve. The forest department has not been able to find the two mother tigresses of the dead tiger cubs.
As the mother tiger never leaves her cubs more than 200 metres away. An investigation is being conducted. It may be possible the dead tigers may have been hunted. The National tigers Commission crime Branch will investigate the reason for the tiger deaths IN the Nilgiri district forrest area.
After the investigation is over, the team will visit the Chinna Coonoor area. Four tiger cubs had previously died in the area. A tiger cub was found dead in the sgur forest area in China Coonoor in the Nilgiris on September 19. On examining the dead cub the forest veterinarian of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve said he was severely dehydrated.
According to the Forest Secretary Supriya Sahu the cub could not be saved despite restless effort of the team. On November 14 information of the tiger cub’s movement was recieved in the Chinnacoonoor area of Nilgiris.
Immediately a team along with trackers from Muddumalai tiger reserve reserve camped in the region and started monitoring. During the monitoring process it was found there are four cubs in the region. A female tiger was seen by the villagers last month. The cubs were monitored regularly as they thought the cubs might be in the nearby areas.
India News
Chhattisgarh: Rahul Gandhi says PM Modi also has a remote control but he presses it secretly
The Congress MP said when he questioned PM Modi on Adani in the Lok Sabha and his Lok Sabha membership got cancelled.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched Mukhyamantri Gramin Awas Nyay Yojana in Chhattisgarh through a remote control. He said PM Narendra Modi also has a remote control but he presses it secretly. Rahul Gandhi waved a remote control at the event in Chhattisgarh and said BJPs remote controls are all secret. Gandhi said the Congress party presses the remote control in the open. But the BJP presses secretly and the public sector becomes private and Adaniji gets Mumbai airport.
The Congress MP said when he questioned PM Modi on Adani in the Lok Sabha and his Lok Sabha membership got cancelled. He attacked the BJP government at the Centre after PM Modi addressed a rally in the poll bound Madhya Pradesh and said the Congress party has rusted like iron. PM Modi said Congress would push back Madhya Pradesh in the sick category whereas 1.5 crore people came out of poverty under the BJP rule in the last five years.
According to PM Modi the Congress and its allies have supported the bill out of hesitation and compulsion as they understood the power of Nari Shakti. PM Modi said Modi means the guarantee of fulfilling guarantees. Rahul Gandhi repeated what he had said in the Lok Sabha during his intervention on the women’s reservation bill.
He said there are only 3 OBC bureaucrats working for the government of India. Rahul Gandhi said caste census is the X-ray of Hindustan. The caste census will determine how many Dalits, SC/STs are there. Gandhi said the government is running away from caste census. He promised the congress will do a caste census.
In all Congress ruled states the public is at the centre and the government is not run by Adaniji. Talking to the media on Sunday Rahul Gandhi said he was confident Congress is winning the election in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. In Rajasthan the fight would be close Gandhi predicted.
India News
Bihar: Dalit woman stripped naked over Rs 1,500 loan, money lender, son booked for assault
The accused have not been arrested so far, and police have initiated a search for them.
In yet another shocking incident, a Dalit woman was assaulted in Bihar’s Patna district by a money lender and his son on Saturday, according to the police. The victim alleged that the accused also urinated on her and tried to disrobe her for not making recurring interest payments on a Rs 1,500 loan that her husband had taken.
According to the victim, Pramod Singh and his son Anshu Singh summoned her to their house on Saturday night mentioning that they had detained her husband and that he would be allowed to go only after the interest on the loan he took from them was fully repaid.
When she reached Singh’s house, her husband was not there. They had lied to her about detaining her husband. The father and son beat her up and tried to disrobe her, and the son also urinated upon her, the woman told the police.
The woman also mentioned that the Rs 1,500 her husband took on loan years ago had already been repaid with interest, but the money lender continued to seek interest from them at regular intervals.
According to reports, police have registered a case against Pramod and Anshu Singh under IPC sections related to assault and misbehaving with a woman, as well as under sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The accused have not been arrested so far, and police have initiated a search for them.
Patna Rural SP Imran Masood asserted that the woman was undergoing treatment for her injuries at a primary healthcare centre. The woman’s brother-in-law told The Indian Express that the poor people of the village have been trapped by money lenders and that it is like a goonda bank. He explained that as most of them are illiterate and cannot get loans from banks, they have to depend on these money lenders and face humiliation.
