Edu department official’s ‘advice’ kicks off a row
AN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL SAID THAT RAI WAS ONLY TRYING TO ‘MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS WHO HAVE JOINED CLASSES AFTER A LONG PERIOD’ DUE TO COVID
NEW DELHI: Several parents’ groups in the Capital raised objections on Thursday after a video on social media purportedly showed the Delhi government’s director of education asking students at a state-run school to “fill the answer sheets with anything” if they did not know the answers, and that there would be leniency in marking as long as there was something written on paper.
The official, Udit Prakash Rai, also appeared to say in the video that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) would give marks even if the students simply copied the questions down instead of attempting to answer them.
HT has seen the video but could not independently verify its authenticity. It was also not clear who had recorded it.
According to Ashok Aggarwal, the national president of the All India Parents Association, the video showed Rai talking to Class 12 students.
“I have written to the chief minister on the matter, asking him to take necessary action against the director. It is shocking that the director of education is issuing such instructions to students and asking them to write just anything or copying the questions on the answer sheet. He also said that they have spoken to CBSE on it,” Aggarwal said, adding that the video was shot on Wednesday. He did not, however, specify where the recording was made, who had made it, or how he knew about the details of the video.
Despite repeated attempts, Rai did not respond to calls and messages seeking comments.
An education department official, who asked not to be named, said that Rai was only trying to “motivate the students who have joined classes after a long period” due to the Covid pandemic.
A CBSE spokesperson said the Delhi education department could “give the context to this specific video”. When asked whether the board had any discussion with the department over marking, CBSE secretary Anurag Tripathi said no such discussion had taken place.
In the video posted on social media, Rai appears to be telling students: “Do not leave the answer sheet blank. Answer all questions. If you don’t know the answers, copy the questions in the space allotted for answers but don’t leave it blank. Write anything you remember, or can think of, but don’t leave it blank. We have spoken to your teachers and they have said that they will mark you if something is written on the answer sheets. We have also told CBSE that if the child writes anything, they should be marked.”
In another video, he appeared to issue corresponding instructions to teachers, asking them to tell students to not leave question papers blank.
Aprajita Gautam, the president of the Delhi Parents’ Association, said such instructions would harm the future prospects of children.
The Delhi Congress criticised the official’s comments. “What kind of education model is this? Director Udit Prakash Rai is telling children that if they don’t know anything, they should write the questions and that the students would be marked on it. [They said] we have spoken to CBSE and students will be marked. This is playing with the future of children,” it tweeted on Thursday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, criticised the comments. Naveen Kumar, media head of Delhi BJP, tweeted in response to the video: “This is the level of education in Delhi,”
The government did not comment on the matter.
To be sure, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi has been focusing on school education ever since they came to power in 2015. The pass percentage of the first batch of Class 12 students under the AAP government was 85.9% in 2016. It has improved over the years to 88.2% (2017), 90.6% (2018), 94.24% (2019) and 99% in 2020.
Last year, as many as 569 students from Delhi government schools passed the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to medical colleges.