India: 125 RSS affiliated schools put on notice by West Bengal Govt

The Times of India

Shutdown threat to 125 schools with saffron link

TNN | Updated: Mar 9, 2017, 08.07 AM IST

KOLKATA: The Bengal government on Wednesday put on notice 125 schools, run by three private trusts perceived to be close to RSS affiliates, for "fanning religious intolerance" and "deviating from the state-mandated syllabus".

All these 125 schools are run mostly by three trusts, Sarada Shishu Tirtha, Saraswati Shishu Mandir and Vivekanada Vidya Vikas Parishad, which proclaim themselves to be affiliated to the Lucknow-headquartered Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan. These organisations have a network of over 350 schools in Bengal, with a student strength of over 60,000.

State education minister Partha Chatterjee singled out 125 of these 350 schools citing a "list" handed over by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in her capacity as the state home minister.

"We have asked these 125 schools to explain why they have deviated from the state curriculum. We have decided to withdraw their affiliation and will shut them down if there is no satisfactory explanation," he said.

There is a great deal of ambiguity about the status of the other 225 schools, many of wh-ich teach only up to Class VIII.

The assembly announcement threw Bengal politics into a tizzy and could indicate the contours of a larger anti-BJP axis in the state. Significantly, the issue was raised in the assembly by CPM MLA Manas Mukherjee, who alleged that 350 schools were fanning religious intolerance that went against the state's multi-religious and multi-cultural ethos. Minister Chatterjee, as if on cue, brought out a list of 125 of these 350 schools, which he put on notice.

The ruling Trinamool and principal non-BJP opposition parties—CPM and Congress—recently came together to oppose the central BJP government's stand on linking Aadhaar to the school mid-day meal scheme.

Schools in Bengal last came under the scanner for their ideological bent during the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee regime. The Left government in 2002-2003 ordered intelligence agencies to look into the curriculum and funding of non-registered madrassas, primarily in Murshidabad, Malda and North and South Dinajpur districts.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said 350-odd schools in the state are run by Vivekananda Vidyabikas Parishad, a registered body, and follow the curriculum set by Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan. "They are mostly in remote places, providing education to more than 60,000. They have been running in Bengal since 1975 when the first Sharada Sishu Tirtha was set up in Siliguri. They mostly follow the state school syllabus with some additional impetus to develop the student's physical, moral and spiritual values. This is an accepted practice in the country and also the state. I think they are sniffing politics everywhere. If they do anything legal we are prepared to battle it out," Ghosh said.

Minister Chatterjee said the state was examining the 125 identified schools and would revoke their NOCs if needed. "We will not allow spreading religious intolerance in the name of teaching students," he said. Of the 125 schools, 96 run without NOC. While 10 are affiliated to the state board, 19 have provisional NOCs. Chatterjee said many of the private schools get affiliation from central boards and take NOCs from the state, making it difficult to act against them.

India: RSS-affiliated schools bloom across Bengal (Soumya Das, The Hindu - Feb 25, 2017)

The Hindu

RSS-affiliated schools bloom across Bengal

  Soumya Das

February 25, 2017 22:39 IST

Parishad runs 326 schools in the State

Though West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been at loggerheads with the BJP-led NDA government over demonetisation and the crackdown on MPs over the chit fund scams, the State government has ensured that more than a dozen Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-controlled schools have been granted affiliation in the last year.
These schools are run by the Vivekananda Vidyavikash Parishad (VVP) with a declared agenda of instilling “Hindu mindset” among the pupils.
The VVP is the Bengal chapter of the Vidya Bharti Akhil Bhartiya Siksha Sansthan, an RSS-affiliated organisation. The organisation’s website clearly states that its primary objective is to establish an education system which will create a generation of “youths with a Hindu mindset.”
“Our aim is to develop an ideal education system which will create a generation of youths who will have Hindu mindset along with well developed spiritual outlook,” states the website of VVP.
Speaking to The Hindu, the organisational secretary of the VPP, Tarak Das Sarkar, an RSS pracharak, said, “All of our schools received State government affiliation after 2011 (when TMC came to power in Bengal).”

Mr Sarkar was quick to stress that, “We have followed due procedures to get the affiliations. There is no politics behind it.”
In 2016 while eight schools (upto class VIII) and two schools (upto class X) run by the VVP have been given permanent affiliation by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), 15 primary schools were issued provisional affiliation by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education. As a result these schools will now be able to receive the grants under the Centre’s Sarva Siksha Abhiyan scheme as well as facilities such as free text books and mid day meal from the WBBSE. They would also be eligible for no objection certificates from the State’s Education Department for being upgraded to Secondary Schools under the WBBSE. However, as per the provisions of the affiliation these schools will not get any financial aid from the State government.
According to VVP authorities, the organisation currently runs 326 schools in Bengal up from 314 in 2015. As on December 2016, the number of students at these schools stood at 74,996, an increase of 23.87 % since 2015, VPP authorities said. They also said the schools which recently got government affiliation are located in the districts of Paschim Medinipur, Murshidabad, Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur and Cooch Behar.
Even as State BJP president Dilip Ghosh criticised the TMC government for “failing to create proper education infrastructure” in Bengal, he welcomed the development as a “positive step.”

“I think they (TMC government) have taken a positive step in giving affiliation to these schools. Since the State government has failed to improve the standard of education in Bengal, they are left with no choice but to give affiliation to these schools,” Mr. Ghosh said.