Author: Sunando Sarkar
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: December 21, 2002
It was not the abject admission
but, rather, the place where it came that was surprising.
A few years after trying its best
to unsettle the Ramakrishna Mission-run primary school at Baranagar for
daring to teach English at the primary level when the Left Front government
was yet to be convinced about its benefits, a Cabinet minister owned up
that the education policy was riddled with mistakes.
Higher education minister Satyasadhan
Chakraborty was speaking at a private function in Belur Math, the mission's
headquarters.
Chakraborty, one of the heads in
the front's education cell, was the chief guest at an exhibition organised
by students of the Belur-based Ramakrishna Mission Shiksha Mandira.
After inaugurating the exhibition
today, Chakraborty - addressing a select group of monks and students of
the institution - said the government had made "many" mistakes while framing
its education policy. "But people learn from their mistakes," he added,
claiming that the government, too, was trying to identify the mistakes
it had made, "based on experience".
"We want to build up the right ambience
for education in West Bengal," the minister said.
But here, too, Chakraborty admitted
that Ramakrishna Mission had got a head-start. Reminiscing about the days
when he was a student (between 1948 and early 1950), Chakraborty admitted
that he used to steal into the mission complex at Belur - with "some tiffin
and water" - and spend the day studying beside the Hooghly.
"What used to attract me then was
the brilliant ambience for studying, for the quest of knowledge," the minister,
who used to live in nearby Bally, said. The atmosphere has not changed
one bit, he added.
"Your aim and our aim are the same,"
Chakraborty said, looking at Swami Smaranananda (general secretary of the
Ramakrishna Math and Mission), Swami Ramananda (secretary of the Belur-based
institution) and Swami Jnanavratachaitanya (officiating principal of the
institution). "Both of us want to create the right ambience for the quest
of knowledge."
And, though there were "some differences",
they were not "that important", he said. "I would like to stress that our
government, with its limited resources, will offer all help to the mission
in its efforts to keep things this way at Belur Math," Chakraborty said.
Things, however, were very different
in 1998, when the state government fought a - not very dignified - battle
with the mission over it's decision to teach English from the primary level
at its Baranagar institution.
There were several instances of
North 24-Parganas District Primary School Council officials acting against
the interests of the school, including holding up some teachers' pay. The
circumstances had forced the school authorities to publicly declare that
they would forgo all financial help from the government by way of the approved
teachers' salary.
Things were sorted out only after
the intervention of the "highest level" of the CPM and the government but
not before both lost an image-scarring battle.
Relief missions
The mission undertook relief and
rehabilitation programmes in 800 villages across the country this year.
A mission spokesman said the rehabilitation work initiated after the super
cyclone in Orissa two years ago was complete. Work is on to help the victims
of last year's quake in Gujarat.
