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The incident first gained public notice, police sources say, when a 14-year-old boy, a ninth-standard student, phoned his parents at 8 pm on July 10 and complained that he and his friend were beaten and stripped by two friends. They became afraid of further torment and escaped the school campus and went to Pune and arrived there at around 1:30 pm.

In a chilling turn of events, a chilling incident of ragging has surfaced at an elite school in Panchgani, near the well-known hill station of Mahabaleshwar in Satara district.

Two minor boys from the same class stand accused of brutally ill-treating and humiliating two younger students, with reports indicating that one of the children was stripped by his classmates against his will.

The police sources informed that the case initially came to light when a 14-year-old student of the ninth standard phoned his parents at 8 pm on July 10, stating that he and his friend were attacked and undressed by two of his classmates. Terrified of being further assaulted, the boys ran out of school and went to Pune, arriving there around 1:30 pm.

Subsequent inquiries found that the same child had also suffered similar episodes on June 23 and July 6, when he was stripped and ridiculed in front of his fellow students. The child explained being threatened and assaulted throughout these incidents, leading his parents to report the incident to Panchgani police.

After the complaint, officials took statements from the parents of the minor students involved and sent the case to the juvenile court in Satara for investigation. The incident caused a shockwave across the educational fraternity, causing serious concern with regard to ragging among minor students in elite educational institutions.

Famous students who studied in Panchgani

Panchgani, a hill town famous for its renowned schools that have children from across India, is now in the limelight for alleged student safety and discipline problems. While incidents in recent times have sent alarm bells ringing, people are now wondering whether legal action will be initiated against the minors. This incident goes on to prove how necessary it is to put an end to ragging and make schools a safe place for all.

Some of the most famous people have attended school in Panchgani. They include Queen legend Freddie Mercury, actresses Kajol, Zeenat Aman, Nutan, Twinkle Khanna, Kim Sharma, Prachi Desai, and Rinke Khanna. Other famous names are Miss World 1966 Reita Faria, Protima Bedi, classically trained dancer, filmmaker Saahil Prem, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, and Lieutenant General Victory Rana.

A government school teacher has been arrested by the police in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district on charges of ripping and burning photos of Bharat Mata and Hindu gods and goddesses. He is also said to have forced Hindu students to read the Quran and learn how to perform Namaz.

A case was filed under BNS Sections 298 and 351(3) -- relating to desecrating a place of worship or items revered by a specific religious community and criminal intimidation -- at Jharda police station in Ujjain on Wednesday, and the accused teacher Shaqil Mohammad Nagori was arrested by the police.

The case was filed on the complaint of Nagpura village resident Rohit Rathore, whose cousin Anurag Rathore is a Class VI student in the government secondary school in Nagpura, where the accused is a teacher.

The complainant said his cousin informed him in the morning on Wednesday that the said teacher, Shaqil Mohammad Nagori, tore and set ablaze photographs of Bharat Mata and Hindu deities in front of school children on July 11.

"A picture of Bharat Mata was half burnt in front of the school when I reached school on Wednesday," the complaint claimed in the complaint.

The complainant also claimed that his cousin and other Hindu students at the said government school have informed him that the Muslim teacher routinely asks them to read the Quran and learn how to perform Namaz.

The school kids informed the complainant that the teacher had threatened to kill them if they publicized the issue (tearing and setting on fire pictures of Bharat Mata, Hindu deities).

While assuring the development, another SP (ASP-Ujjain) Mayur Khandelwal stated, "A case has been registered on the complaint and the concerned teacher has been taken into custody." 

Meanwhile, according to the latest reports, the concerned teacher has been suspended by the Ujjain district education officer, in the wake of the incident.

The Odisha government has come up with a fail system for classes 5 and 8 annual exams from the ongoing academic year. To make this decision work, the government has modified the Odisha Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010. Regular tests will be conducted at the end of every academic year for these classes under the new system.

Failed students will be given special coaching and a chance to re-appear for the test in two months from the declaration of the result, according to a notification issued by the School and Mass Education Department.

"All students of Class V and Class VIII will now have to appear for annual examinations. If a child fails in these examinations, he/she will be provided additional instruction and an opportunity for re-examination within two months of result declaration," read the notification.

"If the child who is being produced for re-examination.does not meet the promotion criteria again, he/she will be retained in fifth class or eighth class, as the case may be," the notification stated.

The directive mentions that no student will be dismissed from school till they complete their primary education.

In December of last year, the Government of India modified the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2010 (RTE Act 2010). The changes allow the states to administer periodic examinations to students of classes 5 and 8, and to retain students who fail. These amendments were effected five years since the RTE Act was last modified in 2019.

While this, The Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha, on 2 May announced exam results for class 10 in the academic year 2024-25.

This year, 9,031 schools took part in the Odisha Class 10 examinations. Out of 5,12,438 students who were enrolled, 8,436 students failed to report for the exams and 5,04,002 students took the exams. One student's result was withheld and 170 students were charged with malpractice. 4,85,240 students passed their Odisha Madhyma exam successfully, leaving the overall pass percentage at 94.69%.

3,272 schools have attained 100% results this year, indicating that all students from these schools have passed the Class 10 exam.

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) released a notification that theatre, music and drama will be introduced from class 8th as compulsory subjects and introduced art as compulsory material. NCERT's all-round curriculum makeover will be in practice from the year 2025-2026.

This aligns with the standards set in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023. This is due to its intention to give children a great, well-rounded education that incorporates arts and creative learning and conventional scholastic learning.

NCERT announced that "Art" would henceforth be re-oriented as a mandatory subject for Class 8. That is, all the children would have to study and pass the subject and move to the next year of school if they wished to or not, or if they had been schooled to anything close to art or not.

NEW TEXTBOOK 'KRITI' UNVEILED FOR CLASS 8

For this revolution, NCERT has introduced a new art book, 'Kriti'. It would be course de force of education to provide performing and visual arts. It would be utilized for giving students to theatre, music, drama, and introduction to art.

Kriti is a right move towards giving arts to school so that subjects which are innovative in nature receive as much importance as study subjects.

NEW CLASS 8 TEXT BOOKS RELEASED IN HINDI AND ENGLISH

Apart from Kriti, NCERT released new language books of Class 8 too. They are 'Poorvi', the revised new English book, and 'Malhar', the new book of Hindi. The books are for disseminating learning languages with new textbooks in the NCF-SE 2023 pattern.".

For below-average sections of Class 5 students, NCERT has introduced 'Santoor' for English and 'Veena' for Hindi to complement the overall exercise to rationalize education in modern form at all stages.

POLICY Alignment with NEP 2020

This also goes with overall reforms suggested under the NEP 2020, such as greater focus on experiential learning, creativity, and arts. With these subjects being covered from the very earliest years of secondary school, NCERT is trying to bring in total development among students.

All in all, it is a paradigm shift in education policy in India with the same amount of stress being given on intellectual as on creative growth.

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) published new textbooks for Class 5 and 8, brimming with the revolutionary vision of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.

These books are a giant leap towards more questioning and inquiry-based learning. With conceptual understanding, creativity, and skill development at the forefront of their new books, they try to go beyond mugging and try to spark curiosity in young minds — the kind where a good book does not tell you what has happened but makes you go on reading and find out why and how.

For Class 8, the following titles have been introduced:

Curiosity – A Science textbook that fosters scientific curiosity and discovery.

Kaushal Bodh – A Vocational Education textbook, the first one for this grade.

Malhar – A Hindi textbook with literary and language exercises.

Poorvi – An English textbook with a focus on comprehension and communication.

Kriti – An art textbook that cultivates creativity through visual expression.

For Class 5, the newly introduced textbooks are:

Veena – Hindi textbook

Santoor – English textbook

These publications arrive after previous releases of NEP-compatible textbooks for Classes 1, 2, 3, and 6, step by step paving the way for the new school education system.

But although they have been published, the new books are not yet available widely or downloadable in print or PDF. Although NCERT has already placed them on sale at Amazon, they are not yet available supplied or stocked and hence the expectations among teachers and parents are rising.

With rollout currently the priority, schools and students wait not only for bound books, but also for supporting teacher materials and resources to be able to make these textbooks come alive in classrooms nationwide.

A big shot in the arm for rural education, students of two govt schools in Sircilla are ready to participate in an eight-week online course by the prestigious IIT Madras from this August. As a part of the school connect programme by the institute, students will learn about advanced subjects including AI to law while remaining in their classrooms.

The courses, which are developed and provided by the outreach and digital education center at IIT Madras, range from a wide variety of topics like data science and AI, aerospace, architecture and design, engineering biological systems, environmental studies, law, electronic systems, humanities, and recreational modules such as 'maths unplugged' and 'fun with maths and computer'.

Government High School, Sircilla and Zilla Parishad Girls High School, Sircilla Class X students will be participating in the programme. The students will view video lessons during the week and participate in live interactive sessions with IIT professors on every Saturday.

"This is a good chance for students to be exposed to these topics and learn directly from IIT Madras. We have all the facilities required, such as big television screens, projectors, and computers to make it an interactive experience," said Dr Chakinala Srinivas, gazetted headmaster of Government High School, Sircilla.

Describing how this came about, he further said, "We grasped the opportunity and made an application for the school connect programme of IIT Madras and received word that the tie-up had been confirmed. This morning, I told the students in assembly, and they were all visibly excited."

Students who successfully undergo the programme will be awarded certificates from IIT Madras, which is an important incentive for a number of students in these schools.

"When students are exposed to multiple subjects at the school level itself, they can make an informed choice about their future profession," Dr Srinivas observed.

The move is viewed as a step towards narrowing the gap between rural students and premier educational institutions, providing them with an early push into future-oriented courses.