In the news for all wrong reasons : Impact on young students
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 29 2019 -
Schools are in the news but for all the wrong reasons and this is a matter of concern.
If it was Little Flower School a few days back, today it is St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, Sugnu. And these schools are in the news for all the wrong reasons, as pointed out earlier here.
It was a grenade at Little Flower School that propelled the school to the front page of all the newspapers published in Imphal and it was the act of arson that pushed St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, Sugnu to the front page, again of all the Imphal based newspapers.
And judging by the way in which the act of arson has been taken up in other parts of the North East region, the school in question has made it to the news in newspapers published from outside the State.
The infamy is complete and it would not be unexpected to see questions being raised on why Mission schools are being targeted in the State.
As noted in an earlier commentary here, St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School is there at Sugnu to serve the people in the remote areas of the State and the ‘blind need’ to settle things with the school seems to have clouded this fact.
As things stand today, the police have pointed the finger of accusations to a student organisation and if this is true then nothing could be more unfortunate, for it would mean students themselves shooting at their own feet to convey a message or two.
Whatever the case may be, the bomb at Little Flower School and the arson at St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School cannot be accepted under any circumstances.
So schools in the news for all the wrong reasons and again one can expect schools and students to be in the news when the Class X and Class XII examination results are announced.
However one big difference will be, the schools will be in the news for the right reasons in the next round.
Or the schools which make it to the news will be doing so on account of the good performance of its students.
And once the Class XII examination result is announced, one can expect to see hundreds, if not thousands of students, making a move to some of the better placed universities and colleges outside Manipur to pursue their higher studies.
Nothing wrong here for nothing should be left to chance to get the best possible education but it should however be questioned why so many students deem it better to move outside Manipur to continue their higher studies once they cross Class XII.
And it stands that not all will get into Medical and Engineering Schools and not all will get into one of the more reputed institutions in the country.
But the need to move out is so acutely felt that parents and elders go out of their way to ensure that their children do go out and pursue their higher studies outside Manipur.
And remember not all parents are that well placed to send their children outside comfortably but only driven by their desire to ensure a better option for their children.
This is a point which has been raised many times in this column earlier and the two recent incidents at the Mission schools have reinforced this belief.
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