Dr. Abhaya Singh Tak
All the schools have been almost shadowed down since mid-March 2020 at the stroke of the novel Coronavirus hit the nation. Schools had to adopt online education as a mode of study that has caused a massive transformation in the education sector. When the fresh COVID-19 cases started declining in the country, several states took to the process of unlocking and relaxing the restrictions imposed. It is visualised that states might announce the reopening of schools soon. As the new academic session is to be given a new start, one of the main questions that haunts in the minds of the students is, when will schools start? Anyway, reopening of schools in offline mode is not mandatory. The key to unlock the schools is in the hands of the government. At the moment, state governments are encouraging online classes since they are frightened with the fear of possible third COVID-19 wave.
Rajasthan school education minister Govind Singh Dotasra; on July 7, said that no decision has been taken regarding the reopening of schools from July 15 in the cabinet meeting. He said that the government wanted to take a decision in the cabinet meeting, but due to time constraints, they couldn’t. Meanwhile, an organization that claims to have more than 40,000 private schools in Rajasthan, has announced that even if the government didn’t take any decision regarding the school reopening, then they would reopen schools from July 16. Anil Sharma, the president of the organisation said, “Most of the children in rural areas are suffering without any physical classes. Hence, for their benefit and with parents’ permission, we will start the schools from July 16 following Covid protocol of allowing 50% strength from Classes VI to XII. If the government wants, they can arrest me.” Sharma said that their association tried to give online education to students but as most students do not have good internet or gadgets, they cannot attend classes. Hence, we have decided to open schools from July 16 with due permission of the parents and following all the corona protocols necessary.
But isn’t it a whimsical approach! Can society tolerate indiscipline in approach? As a matter of fact, neither the government nor the parents will permit such an association of private schools to open the school at this condition. On the contrary, the recent order of the Director of Education Rajasthan will make the condition of the private schools miserable in the state as it will be very difficult for them to retain their students. In this order, citing RTE, it has been said to link children to formal education. There is a prescribed procedure for obtaining TC as per the orders issued previously by the department on 25.07.2018 and 09.04.2020. Simultaneously there is a prescribed procedure for the admission in a new school as per the order dated 25.09.2018. Now, surprisingly these rules have been changed by the Director of Secondary Education. The order states that the students need not to submit a Transfer Certificate (TC) to get admission in government schools. The order is applicable for students studying in Classes 1 to 8. As per this order the students shall not be barred from education at any cost and they would be allowed to study in class provisionally. This is a threat to the private school operators. They are afraid that people might get their children admitted to other schools without paying their long pending fee.
As per the latest released CBSE circular, The syllabus for the academic session 2021-22 will be divided into 2 terms by following a systematic approach by the subject experts of course looking into the interconnectivity of concepts and topics. The board will conduct examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus. This is done to increase the probability of having the Board conducting examinations for classes 10 and 12 at the end of the academic session.”
Rajasthan Board has not issued any such circular and the Department of Education in Rajasthan is engaged in increasing the number of scholars in government schools. Isn’t it a nightmare? Would this improve the quality of education in the state? It seems that the state government wants to strangulate private schools.
Can anybody dare to deny the contribution of private unaided schools in the development of education in the state? Step-motherly treatment given by the state government would only tarnish the image of the government of Rajasthan.
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