Charhajare case testimony of pathetic education system
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 14, 2022 -
IT'S rather disheartening to learn that a student candidate of the on-going HSLC-2022 examination had to forego the remaining subjects after appearing in only the first paper due to lack of teachers in his school, which is officially operational in Kangpokpi district.
There have been various reports of the education sector in both the hill areas and rural pockets in the valley districts lacking basic infrastructure and more importantly teachers to mentor the students, most of them belonging to the economically underprivileged families.
Accepted that successive governments had been emphasising on improvement of educational institutions but the pace of taking up infrastructural development of schools in the rural areas only gains momentum as and when student bodies and civil societies expose serious shortfalls.
Government authorities might try to ignore the case of acute shortage of teachers at Bishnulal High School in Charhajare village as the misfortune befell on only one student but for the Kuki Students' Organisation, Sadar Hills and many other organisations which have been campaigning for promotion of uniform and quality education it's obvious that the matter would be construed as negligence by the government.
If sanctioned strength of teaching staff could not be ensured in a high school which is located within walking distance from the National Highway-2 then one can easily imagine what the condition would be in government schools in the interior areas.
Moreover, in case the government cannot post adequate number of teachers there is no foreseeable reason for upgrading schools as such a policy would be viewed as simply populist policy.
Compared to the rural pockets, there is high concentration of educational institutions in urban and suburban areas but with maximum of them administered by private parties.
On a cursory look, it might seem that the urban population has greater number of students.
However, the fact remains that in Manipur majority of the population still lives in the villages and the number of rural students attending schools increasing.
The foundation to turn Manipur into a strong entity has to be laid down at primary and rural levels so the quality of education right from the beginning till at-least the high school level is a could not be ensure at least compatible if not excellent.
As the Right to Education Act passed in 2009 made education a fundamental right of every Indian citizen, the state government needs to seriously introspect why only the civil bodies bring to the fore discrepancies as well as disparities between the schools in the urban and rural areas.
Rather that live under the impression that sense of alienation and deliberate deprivation among the rural population would wane with the passage of time, the government authorities should regularly assess the education system and make it versatile enough to cope with the great challenge of providing quality education especially in rural areas.
It needs no reminding that the primary necessities in rural area schools are the buildings, furniture, text books, libraries, laboratories, uniforms, mid-day meals, etc.
Nevertheless, even if these shortcomings are addressed, failure to ensure sanctioned strength of teachers can't ensure even minimum standards of learning.
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