Breaking the monopoly ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 01, 2009 -

The result of the HSLC examination, 2009 has thrown up some interesting surprises and as well as some significant questions, such as whether the Big Three, that is, Little Flower School, Nirmalabas School and St Joseph's School, Sangaiprou have lost the monopoly over the first ten spots in the said examination.

It is not very often that a student other than from the said Big Three have bagged the top spot in the HSLC examination, but this year the first position went to a student from Padma Ratna English School, Kakching.

This is a pleasant surprise. We say pleasant because in a certain way it shows that schools other than the said three and more particularly schools not located at Imphal have it in them to produce meritorious students who can stand their ground and out perform their counter parts from Imphal.

This also gives more essence to the notion of spreading quality education across the nook and corner of the State. Significantly, no one from either Little Flower School or Nirmalabas featured in the top ten and only one student from St Joseph's School made it to the top ten securing the 7th position.

Even in the top 25 the three schools did not do as well as in the preceding years, with Little Flower School just making it with two of its students occupying the 24th position. Of the three Nirmalabas performed marginally better, with four of its students making it to the top 25 with one student securing the 11th position.

St Joseph's School followed with three of its students finding their names in the top 25 list. Does this mean that the quality of these schools have deteriorated this year or is it a question of other schools picking up and out scoring them ? We sincerely hope it is the latter case.

Readers may please note the significance of the fact that the failure of the Big Three to dominate the rankings has caught the attention of the people.

In the absence of Government schools failing miserably to impart education, it was left to the Mission schools to fill the void and when we say Mission schools, let's look beyond the Little Flowers, Nirmalabas, St Joseph's, Catholic School or other such schools located in Imphal.

A look at any of the district headquarters or villages, particularly in the hill districts, will leave no one doubt about the pioneering role the Mission schools have taken up to impart education to the people.

If today, the hill people have received the light of education, the credit should rightfully go to the Mission schools for their selfless service.

Even in Imphal, the Mission schools continue to serve as the role model and the numerous private schools which have sprung up all over and which are dominating the scene at the HSSLC level have taken a leaf or two out of the Mission schools.

What is it that makes the Mission schools click while Government schools and even privately run institutions have failed to deliver the goods satisfactorily ?

This year the Mission schools, that is the Big Three, have not performed as well as in the preceding years and our prayer is, let this be the dawn of a new competitive age, when other schools too can compete with them and in the process produce better students to face the challenges of the time.

However it would be foolish to write the epitaph of the Big Three now.