New Education for new Manipur 9

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E-Pao! Education - Completely new education for a new Manipur - 9

Completely new education for a new Manipur
— With special reference to the hills —
Part 9

By: T. Vunglallian *

It would even be for the good of education in Manipur and its many young highly qualified un-employed, that a Voluntary Retirement Scheme for teachers be launched. With a golden handshake or, at least, a silver one in a poor state like ours!

Sixth: Bitter Pill measures (BPMs): The above confidence building measures (CBMs) do not cost an extra rupee, but if carried out in letter and spirit, they are sure to reap a bountiful harvest, year on year. Having said that, there are some bitter pill measures (BPMs) - that too do not cost an extra rupee – but have to be taken/swallowed, if we want good new education in a new Manipur, viz.:-

(i) The bitterest pill to swallow, for many, would be the very thought and act of... the creation of the said two services.

These petty minds would see it, not as a logical bifurcation... that would automatically mean a split in the staff, assets and budget, and would certainly be an awesome and mind-boggling task ... but they would prefer to rally behind the bogey of: "bifurcation into two services is a threat to territorial integrity of the state!"

(Actually, they have only to have a change in perspective to see their objections are just lame excuses. Besides, if they bother to look at things objectively, they would realize that disintegrating forces are already at work today, precisely because of what is happening today, in part, in the field of education).

(ii) A study of the enrolment figures in government schools and colleges, their performances in the public examinations and the ever-increasing burden on the exchequer... all these dismal figures have been shamefully consistent in their descent in the past few years.

This is common knowledge, but the uncommon thing is that no one is doing anything about it. The Government is not downsizing or warning or pulling up socks.

Our University – unlike the more pro-active Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BSEM) or Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur (COHSEM) - is not de-recognizing or warning the colleges that do not merit the fair name of 'college'...

It makes one think: Whose job is it then if not MU's? Whatever, the point is that most government schools and colleges – as they are today - are fully fit cases for winding up! (Few like to hear that).

Thus, the hard – and perhaps politically incorrect - downsizing of the number of schools and colleges is a must, if we care enough for the future. (Alarmists should realize that downsizing the number of teachers is not being suggested).

Further notes on downsizing the number of schools and colleges:

The dismal decades old educational scenario prompts the 'new reformist' (he'd have to be 'new' for the old set of educationists never reformed anything) to take the hard option of using the "perform or perish" yardstick to downsize the number of government schools and colleges.

Before protests and angers rise too high, all critics must look at this whole exercise objectively, and after accepting the ground reality that is shooing away our students. One can then realize that there are only advantages and not a single demerit in downsizing for the sake of a 'new' education!

In case of downsizing the number of schools and colleges, the first action would be to re-locate the staff to the new centers of learning. This, in itself, should not raise a storm, especially for those serving in the valley, because the staff would just be going about 10-20 km. east/west/north/south of their old school/college.

Whereas, those serving in a hill school or college would, in comparison, really suffer! That, however, would be the problem of MHES... and the people in the MHES would be the best people to sort out their own problems).

The re-locating/movement, both in the valley and hills, would probably lead to the new centers becoming over-staffed, a thing unheard of in the past, but promising a brighter future, because -

Overstaffing would guarantee not only normal classes but a lot of extra classes, smaller section ( a boon for science practical etc.) ... as against today's curse of under-staffing, yet over-enrolled (in some rare cases)... and all other resultant problems, complaints and poor performances!
Over-staffing would also enable the actual opening of innovative and relevant new courses, including the much-needed self-financing ones. If so, wouldn't everyone benefit from a 1000/2000/3000 plus students coming and getting confined in campuses, for 6-7 hours daily with their teachers... everything would boom and bloom! Parents would be happier, students would be students and teachers teachers. The above is perhaps an over- simplification, but... it is one that Manipur needs desperately.

Further, reduced number of, for instance government colleges, should not be objected to, for one can cite the cases of a "successful" Assam that has only 6 (six) Government colleges, while another "successful" Meghalaya has only 3 (three)!

Interestingly, Manipur has 32 Government colleges (of which 25 are general and 7 technical)... and, as good as, none are worth writing home about!

As for aided-colleges Assam has 261, Meghalaya 25 and Manipur 7 (all of them in the valley). Before any misinterpretation of the above statistics is made, it must be known, to one and all, that the aided colleges of the two mentioned states are like Day to our night-like aided-colleges!

From the above, one can conclude that Manipur's education polciy/ practices do not work at all. That is, if we have a policy at all.

(i) A system of downgrading/closing/merging institutions and penalizing/ fining headmasters/ principals and teachers for under-performance (like poor examination results or falling enrolment)... ought to be adopted and practised for two consecutive years.
(Of course, the numbers or cut-off figures shall have to differ between institutions under MHES and under MVES).

(ii) One of the things that must be ended, once and for all, is the call/demand for posts of school and college heads to become selection posts, so as to have "regularized" HMs/Principals.

In its place this writer proposes – as a logical consequence to the, let's call it, Policies of Separate Services and Life-time Service in One Institution suggested in the beginning – that it is important to have regular heads, but regular of a different kind, in that the appointment should be a normal, regular/routine affair within the school/college.

The Head should be from the resultant in-house seniority order, wherein a reputed and upright "class-taking teacher" would automatically assume the chair of the headmaster/principal on retirement/demise of the predecessor.

However, just in case, the next in-line is a known class-shirking teacher or has been suspended from service for some period of time etc., such a person's appointment/assuming headship may be vetoed by the general body of teachers and non-political community leaders of the community the institution serves.)

Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3 | Read Part 4 | Read Part 5 | Read Part 6 | Read Part 7 | Read Part 8 | Read Part 9 | Read Part 10 | Read Part 11 |

T. Vunglallian wrote this article for The Sangai Express. The writer is a retired Lecturer of Churachandpur College. This article was webcasted on November 14th, 2006.

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