Destination beyond Manipur : In search of education after Class XII
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 29 2017 -

With the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur (COHSEM) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declaring the Class XII results, thousands of students from Manipur will be heading towards other cities in pursuit of higher education.

Not all students will get into medical and engineering schools, so many of the students will be pursuing degree courses.

Nothing wrong with this, but this should not stop all from raising the question of why numerous students from Manipur deem it necessary to go outside the State to pursue their higher education.

The State Government too should focus on this question.

As pointed out many times in this column, to the moneyed people, sending their children outside the State for higher studies will not pose much of a problem, but not all parents are rich but feel the need to send their children outside for better prospects and herein lies the question of what has happened to higher education in Manipur.

Is it a question of only the colleges or does this say something about the overall atmosphere in the State, which does not exactly offer the desired climate for students to pursue their studies diligently?

This is a question which every responsible member of the society should be raising now.

Definitely there are some students who have managed to beat all the odds and perform extraordinary well, but then not all are Thounaojam Loyangamba, the student cum labourer who came fourth in the Commerce stream in the Class XII examination this year.

It is not only about the standard of the educational institutions but the overall socio-politico reality that needs to be addressed to on a priority basis to offer the right ambience for the young students to pursue their higher education.

Apart from the financial burden that parents have to bear, the mass exodus of thousands of students every year for higher studies will surely drain the State too.

This is the age of competition and it is therefore necessary that the right ambience is created for all the young students to pursue their studies without any disturbance from any quarter.

A look at the reality will give a grim picture of how the young students have been continuously dragged out from their class rooms to take up issues which should ideally be dealt with by the adults of society.

This is a situation which society should deal with and it would be unfair to put the responsibility on the educational institutions alone.

So now with the Class XII exams results out, one can expect thousands of young students moving outside the State to pursue their higher studies and while some will come back with the needed education not all will, which means that thousands of rupees would have been wasted.

Students too should understand the reality and the trouble that parents have to go to educate them outside the State.