K-12 School Education News | Stay Updated with Edinbox

Acting on a media report, the District Magistrate of Surguja in Chhattisgarh conducted an inspection of a ruined school in a far-flung village and took immediate action, including sanctioning a new school building and suspending the village secretary.

The visit was made a day after India Today reported that village kids had to learn in a dilapidated Anganwadi kitchen because there was no working school building, which existed only on paper, it was reported.

Shaken by the grim situation, the DM visited the premises himself and raised serious concern over the lack of basic educational infrastructure. "Children cannot be taught in such unsafe surroundings," said the DM during the visit. He sanctioned the building of a proper school building for the village on the spot.

Taking administrative action, the DM suspended the village secretary for dereliction of duty and served a show-cause notice to the block education officer for not taking action earlier against the long-pending issue.

The incident has again brought to light the disconnect between records and ground realities in rural education. It also highlights the important role played by the media in bringing spotlight to the forgotten corners of the system.

The authorities have been directed to start the process of building without any delay, and ad-hoc measures for safe learning environments are being made for the affected kids.

With administrative accountability now underway, residents are optimistic that the children will finally receive the classroom they deserve.

General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Tuesday ruled out the prospect of the government changing its stance in revising the school timing. The revision is done only for classes 8 to 10, the minister claimed, while very few students used to attend the religious studies in these classes.

The priority is to protect the education rights of the students, Sivankutty reiterated. "The government does not object to religious education, but the academics of the students are paramount," he added.

Saying he had spoken to Jifri Thangal (Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama president Syed Mohammed Jifri Muthukoya Thangal), Sivankutty clarified that the recent meetings had no connection with school-hour change but to dispel doubts. "They have been misguided. The meeting was to clarify, not to alter," he explained.

Classes in Malappuram and Kozhikode unaided schools start at 9am, Sivankutty added.

"We have 10 schools in Gulf countries. Those schools run by the authorities there start at 9am," he said, and claimed that the government was interested in guarding the interests of all 47 lakh students in Kerala. He also clarified that there is no opposition by the government regarding the opinions of any religious group. "We are ready to discuss with anyone on extending the school hours," he said.

Regarding the padapooja matter, Sivankutty said that washing teachers', retired teachers', or any other distinguished personality's feet by students as part of customary practice will be prohibited in state schools.

"The education department has directed the director of general education to ask questions about schools where such incidents occurred. These are similar to old customs in the modern world. School officials at the helm of RSS ruled that they would provide protection to the institution for the (padapooja) ceremony.

But such schools will struggle to run the institution legally," Sivankutty said.

Community groups have to take up matters relating to their own communities or religion; education is the sphere of the democratically-elected government, according to the minister, while simultaneously indicating that religion and education should never be combined and will not be allowed to mingle under any circumstances.

Within hours of Tamil Nadu's Director of School Education releasing a circular that ordered that seating in classrooms can take the shape of a semi-circle, similar to the Tamil letter Pa ( ), the directive was suspended after it caused a tidal wave of criticism, particularly on social media, by educationists, health professionals, and political parties.

The seating arrangement was intended to eliminate the stigma of ‘backbenchers’ and promote equality among students.

The circular issued by S Kannappan, Director of School Education, stated, "Engagement begins with arrangement, the 'Pa' shape opens the floor for open minds." It stated the arrangement would improve interaction, provide all students with a clear vision of blackboard and teacher, and enable teachers to observe all the students effectively, apart from ensuring students' comfort.

But the plan sent shockwaves immediately regarding its feasibility and impact on health with most wondering if there were any consultations with the stakeholders involved before the issuance of the guidelines.

New arrangement may impact children's health

"Students on the sides will have to rotate their necks for hours, five days a week. It can cause 50% of students to suffer from serious neck-related problems, and 15% could have very serious problems," a neurosurgeon wrote on X.

He also alerted us to visual stress, particularly for glasses-wearing students who would be asked to peer through the periphery of their lenses instead of the optic center, resulting in additional eye strain and headaches. The Director of School Education circular had instructed all Chief Educational Officers in all the districts to provide the new seating configuration in all the classrooms, considering the student strength and class sizes.

While the new arrangement was to be put in place based on the size of each class according to the circular, most noted that government schools and government-aided schools have longer rooms, as opposed to broad rooms that would be required to support seating structures in 'Pa' shape. Furthermore, a class with a large number of students will experience hardship even with the new arrangement.

The idea of the move was inspired after a few schools in Kerala voluntarily followed such seating patterns on their own, following the Malayalam film Sthanarthi Sreekuttan.

Responding to the move, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami criticized the state government for pinching ideas from movies without any scientific study. "Stop playing with students' health for publicity," he tweeted on X. BJP state secretary SG Suryah also criticized the move. The director told TNIE that the circular has been suspended. "Following health issues raised, we are debating whether to apply it or not. A decision will be made after thorough discussions next week," he added.

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.