“If we look at the success rates, we may notice that the medium of instruction is not an important factor in learning,” West Bengal Education Minister Dipak Barman said in a freewheeling conversation with The Statesman.
Photo: SNS
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accusing the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government of carrying out large-scale cash-for-jobs scam in the education sector. With the BJP government now coming to power in the state, West Bengal Education Minister Dipak Barman, has a massive task at hand – to restore the honour of the teaching profession.
In an exclusive conversation with The Statesman, Dipak Barman said that among the several challenges that lie ahead of the Suvendu Adhikari government, the most glaring one is to bring back the reputation that is conventionally associated with teaching, a profession that is considered sacred and pure by the society in general, especially in Bengal.
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“It is true that there are challenges. We all are aware about how far the roots of corruption have reached,” the Falakata MLA told The Statesman, hitting out at the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.
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Exuberating confidence that the BJP government is fully equipped to restore the fading confidence in the teaching profession, Barman explained, “There is an element of dignity associated with the profession of teaching. Our society respects this profession. This dignity has been tarnished. We have the responsibity to restore that, and our government is fully prepared to do that.”
The state Education Minister also pointed out that shortage of teachers in educational institutions remain one of the challenges hampering the learning process, which the new government is eager to work upon.
“Our schools should function. It’s not that the schools are not functioning. However, it faces severe challenges like shortage of teachers, which in turn disrupts the process of learning which is the core purpose of schools. We all know about this problem. We want to address these issues,” Barman said.
Barman, however, did not agree to the notion that students in Bengal are more likely to fare well in competitive examinations if the medium of instruction is in English rather than in their mother tongues.
He said that most of the schools in Bengal teach in their mother tongue and language should not be the only factor that determines the efficacy of the learning process.
“Around 80 percent of our students here study in Bengali-medium schools. The remaining students study in English-medium, Hindi-medium, or schools in various other mediums. If we look closely at the English-medium schools, we will see that most of them are privately run. Usually, families with greater financial means send their children to these schools. If we look at the success rates, we may notice that the medium of instruction is not an important factor in learning,” Barman said.
“What really matters is how students are taught in schools, how much effort students are putting into their studies, or their family’s socio-economic circumstances. There are several factors which play a role into this. We cannot judge this based on a single parameter,” he stressed.
Pointing out what the new government wants to focus on after coming to power, the senior BJP leader said, “Our goal is to ensure quality teaching, and to ensure that an appropriate student-teacher ratio is maintained across schools.”
Among several major accusations against the previos dispensations, the BJP has claimed that the TMC regime had facilited illegal appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government schools through the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) which has dented the profession of teaching in general.
Commenting on another such claim made by the BJP, on the illegal allocation of housing facilities by the previous government, Dipak Barman said, “It is true that there are several challenges in the housing sector. We are working on identifying all illegal occupants following which further steps will be taken.”
Emphasising that the BJP government will be completely devoid of corruption, Barman said, “It is our government’s policy that we will not indulge in any understanding, and will act strictly.”
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