The condition of the education system in West Bengal (pop. 91 million) is near its nadir. Acts of indiscipline and general lawlessness are now a daily occurrence in this state which led the subcontinent’s education awakening and renaissance of the mid 19th century. All hopes of the political transformation of West Bengal following the electoral rout of the Communist Party of India (CPM)-led Left Front government which had ruled the state for 34 years, and its replacement by the Trinamool Congress in 2011 with the promise of poriborton (change), have been dashed. In particular, West Bengal’s academic institutions are at the receiving end of a rising wave of lawlessness and vandalisation which has unnerved the academic and teachers communities.

On September 11, parents of students attacked and vandalised the state board-affiliated Christ Church Girls’ Higher Secondary School (estb. 1882) in North 24 Parganas district, forcing principal Helen Sircar to write her resignation in the presence of a police contingent. Their anger was aroused by the death on September 7 of Oindrila Das, a ten-year-old student of the school who allegedly suffered trauma after being locked in a toilet by senior students. Oindrila reportedly died after being administered a lorazepam injection.

Although principal Sircar denied any knowledge of the incident, she was arrested and kept in custody for three days. In protest against “police inaction” during this incident which included attacks on teachers and destruction of property, more than 1,000 schools affiliated with the West Bengal Association of Christian Schools, the Association of Anglo-Indian Schools and almost 300 affiliated with the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) called a one-day shutdown on September 21. Quite obviously the damage inflicted on Christ Church Girls has been considerable because the school has closed indefinitely for repairs.

Academics and teachers are outraged that “educated” middle class parents went on the rampage for a circumstance clearly beyond the control of the school principal and possibly caused by medical negligence. The prolonged shutdown of the K-12 school is being interpreted as a punishment for parents. “It’s shocking that respectable middle class parents went berserk and humiliated the principal of a reputed school which provides English-medium education at rock bottom prices,” says a staff member. “The long shutdown of the school will no doubt teach them to value and respect our school,” he adds.

Campus hooliganism is palpably spreading across West Bengal. On September 22, the Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira Polytechnic College in Howrah district was ransacked by angry parents protesting the death of a first year student who drowned while taking a dip in a pond on college premises.

Earlier on September 11, Souvik Bhattacharya, vice chancellor, pro-VC Siddhartha Dutta and registrar Pradip Kumar Ghosh of the showpiece Jadavpur  University, were ‘gheraoed’ for 51 hours by students over a ragging incident after the university’s Anti-Ragging Committee found two students guilty of ragging a second year student.

Describing police “appeasement” of the mob outside the Christ Church Girls premises as “highly objectionable,” Devi Kar, director of the top-ranked CISCE-affiliated Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata, is outraged that principal Sircar was forced to apologise to the mob and subsequently resign. “It is alarming how often the public takes the law into its own hands. This is perhaps because people have lost faith in the competence of the police and justice systems. If such hooliganism continues, it will adversely affect the education system, as teachers will feel increasingly insecure about disciplining students,” says Kar.

With India Inc and foreign investors wary about promoting industry in West Bengal because of rising lawlessness, the state’s huge army of unemployed and unemployable youth is growing. They are easily manipulated and aroused by wily politicians with short-term electoral goals.

“The socio-economic condition of the people is as it was under Left Front rule and the huge gap between the promise of change and reality of performance is exacerbating the situation,” comments Dr. Omprakash Mishra, professor of international relations at Jadavpur University.

The poriborton dream could well become a nightmare

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)