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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Education fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about education. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

1,862 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYEducation

Amartya Sen was involved in gross irregularities and land grab during his tenure at visva-Bharati university in West Bengal

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim links Amartya Sen to alleged “gross irregularities and land grabbing” during a supposed tenure at Visva-Bharati University. The review says it investigated his connection to the university and the land dispute. It reports that Sen had been born on the campus, attended school there and received an honorary degree, but found no indication he held a faculty or administrative post. That undercuts the claim’s premise that the alleged conduct occurred during his tenure at the university. The review describes the controversy as a dispute over Sen’s ancestral property in Santiniketan, not as a finding that he committed land grabbing. Visva-Bharati alleged that he possessed 1.38 acres despite being entitled to 1.25 acres, and said the excess land had been encroached upon. Sen disputed the university’s account, saying his father had purchased freehold land and that the family had used the property for decades. The review reports these as opposing positions, not as independently established ownership findings. The review’s conclusion is therefore limited but relevant: it says Sen never held an official university position and that the controversy concerned his ancestral property. Its account documents an unresolved dispute over land and competing assertions about entitlement; it does not establish that Sen committed irregularities or land grabbing during a university tenure.

FACTLYEducation

India with 5288 tops the list of countries with most universities

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a circulated list that placed India first with 5,288 universities, ahead of the USA and Indonesia. FACTLY traced the figure to Webometrics’ June 2021 ranking, which counted 5,288 entries for India, compared with 3,216 for the USA and 2,595 for Indonesia. The article notes that this ranking categorizes institutions by their world rankings; it does not establish that the entries are a reliable count of universities in each country. The review compares the viral figure with two Indian higher-education counts. It reports that the University Grants Commission (UGC) listed 1,078 universities as of 31 March 2023. It also cites the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2020–21, which counted 1,113 universities or university-like institutions registered under the survey. Both figures are far below 5,288, so the Webometrics total does not support the claim as a count of India’s universities. The article says it is unclear how Webometrics arrived at its country totals and questions its methodology, which involves universities’ online presence and content. It also distinguishes the ranking’s separate finding that the USA had 56 universities in the top 100 from its much larger count of institutions across all rankings. That distinction helps explain why a ranking-based list should not be treated as a verified inventory of universities.

FACTLYEducation

The education minister of Delhi, Atishi, exposes the poor state of the schools run by the Government of Delhi

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

FACTLY examined a viral video showing Delhi education minister Atishi Marlena inspecting a school and criticizing its poor infrastructure. The claim attached to the video was that the school was run by the Government of Delhi, making the visit evidence that the government’s schools were in poor shape. The review’s central finding is that this was not a Delhi Government school: it was operated by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

YouturnEducation

எங்களுக்கு நிச்சயமாக சிறந்த பள்ளிகள் தேவை. மாணவியின் குரல்…! சிறியவர்கள் முதல் பெரியவர்கள் வரை எதிர்பார்க்கும் நாள் ஏப்ரல் 14…! தமிழகத்தின் மாற்றத்திற்கான நாள். இது தாங்க நேரம்..! இனி எல்லாம் மாறும்..!

Publisher’s rating: Fake