The Wire has once again donned its favorite role—the wailing watchdog—to paint a bleak picture of Bengal’s education system. Its latest piece, “A Silent Exodus: Bengal’s Education Crisis is Forcing Students Out of Schools and Into Labour,” cries foul over school closures, teacher shortages, and rising dropouts. But like always, it carefully sidesteps the elephant in the room: the Bengal government’s own failures.
Who’s to Blame? Not the Boogeyman, but the Government
Let’s be clear. The Wire’s emotional storytelling might be effective, but it conveniently ignores the core issue—West Bengal’s education system is collapsing not because of poverty, nor because of some imagined “RSS-affiliated school conspiracy,” but because the state government itself has abandoned its responsibilities.
The numbers don’t lie:
– The Bengal government has not hired teachers in years, leaving thousands of posts vacant.
– In rural areas, there are schools with only one teacher who is forced to teach all subjects, and in some cases, even cook midday meals.
– The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) scam exposed massive corruption, leading to the cancellation of 24,000 teacher appointments.
How is it shocking that students are dropping out when schools are understaffed, unfunded, and in some cases, shutting down completely?
The Great TET Scam: When Teaching Posts Were for Sale
One of the biggest frauds in Bengal’s education history is the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) scam.
– The Calcutta High Court struck down 25,753 fraudulent appointments, but the damage was already done.
– Former education minister Partha Chatterjee was jailed for his role in the scam.
– Hundreds of qualified teachers have been protesting in Kolkata for over a year, demanding justice while the government looks the other way.
This isn’t an education policy failure. It’s organized crime in the education department.
Higher Education: Where Have the Students Gone?
Bengal’s education crisis isn’t just about primary and secondary schools. Higher education is in free fall too.
– Out of 948,787 seats in colleges, only 453,068 were filled, meaning 58% remained vacant.
– A large number of those who do enroll leave Bengal for states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra in search of better education and job prospects.
– Many students are returning only during exams, while others simply drop out by the second year.
Why? Because Bengal’s colleges are underfunded, badly managed, and provide little to no career prospects.
The Wire’s RSS Obsession: A Convenient Distraction
No Wire article is complete without a reference to the “dangers” of the RSS. This time, they suggest that RSS-affiliated schools are creeping in to fill the gaps left by government failures.
What’s funny is that they don’t provide a single statistic or piece of evidence to back up their paranoia. Meanwhile, they conveniently ignore the Left Front’s disastrous legacy of turning Bengal’s public schools into ideological battlefields, where education took a backseat to political indoctrination.
The Bottom Line: Stop the Propaganda, Start Fixing the System
Let’s call this crisis what it really is: a government-made disaster. The Wire can keep writing sob stories and pretending the TMC government is just an innocent bystander, but the reality is clear.
– Bengal’s schools lack infrastructure, funding, and teachers.
– Corruption has hollowed out the education sector.
– The government has done nothing to address the real issues.
Students aren’t leaving schools because of some sinister plot. They’re leaving because there are no teachers to teach them, no classrooms to sit in, and no hope left in Bengal’s education system.
Maybe The Wire should stop shedding crocodile tears and start asking the real questions. Until then, Bengal’s education crisis will remain just another scandal the government pretends doesn’t exist
Author : Sandeep Gandotra, is a serial entrepreneur, startup founder, social media influencer and political analyst with 25 years of overall experience. Tweets at Sandeep Gandotra
