Hill-valley disparity in education : Why toppers only from Imphal ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 24 2018 -
The Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur (COHSEM) has already announced the Class XII examination results and the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BOSEM) is expected to follow soon with the Class X results.
No surprises in the Class XII results with the exception of one Imphal based school where its students completely dominated the first ten position in the Arts stream.
In the Matric examination results too, the same script will follow, with private schools notably the missionary schools most likely to hog the show.
Again it may be expected that the good show will be dominated by the Imphal based schools and this says something very important.
The question is, are the schools based in the other districts, particularly in the hill districts unable to produce top notch students who can come out tops in flying colours.
There has to be an explanation for this.
Being the capital of the State, Imphal obviously will have an advantage over the other districts, but competition from schools and students from the other districts can certainly make education more meaningful.
It is also a given that most of the Mathematics and Science subjects teachers are residents of the valley, and the natural question is why their services are not being utilised in the hills.
Is it a case of the teachers themselves unwilling to move to the hills or are the schools in the hills unable to meet the salary demand of these teachers ?
Or is it simply a case of the students from the hills not interested or do not lean towards Maths and the Science subjects ?
If this is the case then at least one expects the hill students to do well in the Arts stream after their Class X.
Or is it a case of the students from Imphal and the valley area more industrious ?
The disparity is huge.
And it has been like this for decades and something really needs to be done to improve or see how to produce outstanding students from the hills too.
Granted there are a number of Grade I officers from the hills but most did their schooling from Imphal or other parts of the country.
Even today, most of the students from the hills who do well in their Class X examinations opt to come to one of the better schools in Imphal and while this is perfectly natural, it is but right to ask why there are no schools of repute in the hill districts.
How about the elders of the hill districts ?
Do they give primacy to the education of their young ones so that they excel in the Class X and Class XII exams ?
How about the civil society organisations based in the hills ?
These are questions which all should start asking now for after all it is about grooming the youngsters.
This is up to the level of Class XII and as questioned many times in this column, why do so many of the youngsters feel compelled to move out from Manipur after their Class XII ?
Time for all to give some thought to the ugly reality for this is about the future of the young kids and not all parents can afford sending their children outside to pursue their higher education.
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