These days, everywhere I look, I can’t escape my gaze from one message that seems to scream at me like there is no tomorrow telling us that NOW is the perfect time to act or regret later. I find it in the newspapers tucked alongside the news item of now ubiquitous Paris Hilton’s antics; in the street I find no respite as large hoardings will greet me with the same message, and when I turn on television, you bet the idiot box is half filled with the same message what with crawlies and scrollers spoiling even the sub-titles of movies.

This is not the message of an impending war, so take heart. I am sure you get the same feeling as we all are inundated with the same surfeit of advertisements planted by coaching institutes and schools which flaunt their achievers in board’s exams and other competitive exams as if they were wares for sale in a Sunday market.

I don’t dispute the right of these institutes to enhance their reputation through ads to attract more students and swell their bottom-line. If anything, these institutes should be encouraged as it is one of the few surviving industry (perhaps along with healthcare industry) that works in Manipur, and considering how poor we are in entrepreneurial skills, these institutes may just provide that much needed kick-start for other types of ventures in other sectors.

The worrying aspect of coaching institutes and their loud shenanigans in the media is its impact on the aspiration level of the middle class. Countless parents are sending their kids to coaching institutes in the hope that they will become a doctor, an IAS officer or any other high-flier in life.

A few of them will fulfil their parents’ dreams but the rest will fall by the wayside, despite the well-meaning guidance by the experts. What will happen to them, the victims of unrealistic aspirations fuelled by coaching institutes’ promises of instant moon..er..success?

As a society, we are becoming obsessed with success. The acid test for the maturity of any society lies in its ability to negotiate the aspirations of its members with its capacity to realise them. What is more important is the wherewithals it provides to the ambitious lot and seeing to it that they are in sync with the right values that we want reinforced in the society.

Competition and the sweet success it begets is fine but we also need to ensure that the means to achieve it are just as well exemplary. Needless to say, we should reject and punish the short-cuts and corner-cutting that is so commonplace, if not institutionalised, which leads to a vicious cycle of corruption.

The support system for those who can’t make the cut of competition is equally important. As we all know, there are more than four lakh educated unemployed in Manipur. Such is the contempt for dignity of labour that I am sure many of them would choose to do nothing instead of deigning to labour like the illiterate ranks of uncouth—as it were.

A large number of them would also enrol for higher degrees, even PhD, in Manipur and outside with the sole objective of whiling away the time until an opportunity knocks on the door.

Two things stand out: one, we need to have more avenues for employment other than in public sector which is shrinking (sorry this is a cliche).

Two, the quality of our higher education is so poor that it has become the refuge of the unemployed seething masses. How many of them are really employable is a moot point. (A recent study found out that more than 80 per cent of the Indian graduates are unemployable).

Which brings us to the current spasm of adulation and celebration of the star students by both the public and the coaching institutes. It shows that deep in our hearts amidst the rampant corruption that prevails in Manipur there is a lurking desire, if a feeble one, for excellence unsullied by the sea of mediocrity all around.

That’s why we hail Michael (the third ranker in this year’s HSLC examination) in chat shows and felicitation functions and give him a hero’s welcome in his public appearances.

Part of the reason why we give this special treatment to Michael is because he exploded the myth that private tuitions are a must for any student who wants to clear the matric exams. Not only did he give a lie to that notion but also proved it that an unassuming boy from a poor family studying in a nondescript school can actually upset the competition for the top honours which so far had been restricted to kids of the affluent class.

Thanks to Michael, other top rankers almost seem and croaked apologetic instead of being proud with the outcome of this battle which inevitably is a battle among the unequals.

So I am now beginning to question, with a little help from Michael’s outstanding performance, the correlation between one’s ability to succeed in exams and the coaching and educational institution one goes to.

The popular belief is that a school has an overwhelming influence on the performance of a student. It might to an extent but try reversing the proposition. Most well to do families send their wards to a mission school while poor ones have to be contented with government schools.

My argument is that it is not the schools which are the decisive factor but the moral and material support that student receives from their parents at their home that is more important.

In any case, rich and educated parents are more likely to give more attention to their children’s education than their poor counterparts, often caught in dysfunctional families. We need to revisit the role of tuitions and schools, which are at the centre of the current debate on quality education, in favour of a greater role of the family.

When asked whether he would have fared better if he had been given all the facilities of tuition, a great school and support like other toppers, Michael succinctly answered: “Who knows I might have been in a worse position,” to the applause of the audience.

Which throws up a question: Are the tuition houses really good for the students? Without mincing any words, I guess they are helpful for the second-rate students who lack initiative and originality and need to be spoon-fed. And for the genuinely talented self-made boy like Michael they are unnecessary distractions at best and could even be harmful to their inner drive.

And if you think a board exam is too insignificant to rely on to reach such a sweeping conclusion, there’s another testimony: Mona Pruthi, the topper of last year’s Civil Services Exam, as were many toppers in the past, didn’t take the help of any coaching institute.

Self-study is the best strategy and a sign of a natural winner. At least I believe so.