The State Education Commission of Manipur headed by Dr. R.P. Singhal, the former Executive Director of National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, Government of India was constituted on the 8th February, 1991 with a view to remove anomalies in the organizational structures and qualification of teachers in the state’s school education department so that rationalization of teachers could be effected and their pay structures improved for bringing up the standards of education in the state.

Within a period of only three months since its consultative meeting held on the 20 March, 1991, the Commission was able to submit its interim report in spite of various difficulties, such as lack of infrastructures, sufficient budget and other essential facilities for the commission.

The commission recommended in its interim report like revision of pay of scales of teachers as per Central Pay Scales as allowed by the GoI for its teachers, grant of teaching allowance, raising of minimum qualification in consonance with those prescribed by the Central Govt, notification of vacancies of posts district-wise so that difficult areas did not remain starved of teachers, timely appointment of teachers through selection tests, posting of newly appointed teachers in schools against the vacancies well before the commencement of the every academic session each year, constitution of even a State Education Service, etc. etc.

It is said that the commission members had interacted with a wide cross-section of people in every district of Manipur to adopt a pragmatic and practical approach. The commission went a step further for an even more ambitious plan calling it a multidimensional approach.

But the one thing lacking was the attempt for methodical approach. Apart from the fact that this would have been an impossible feat in getting the much awaited result unless the State Government of Manipur was seriously concerned with the recommendation of the commission was not visualized. There is an uncomfortable alliance between symbolism and realism in the present trend as is manifested by repeated lethargic attitude of the department to show transparency or administrative efficiency.

Likewise, the more a man thinks, the better adapted he becomes in education, is nothing if it is not the methodical creation of the habit thinking.

The concerns: It is significant that notwithstanding the phenomenal growth of education in the state, the Government of Manipur was concerned with not only the non-enrolled children and the illiterate adults, but also about the need to improve the quality of education forming the foundation for building a strong educational edifice as well as for raising the quality of life of the people.

Serious concerns were expressed in different quarters about the low standard of education particularly in Government schools. Whereas, the performance of students of mission and other private schools at the examinations conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur overshadowed the performance of that of Government schools.

The repercussion was that parents of both hill and valley districts as an act of resentment stopped sending their children to government schools. Whether rich or poor, they preferred private English schools which had mushroomed in Manipur. There was a staggering disparity in distribution of schools in the state.

The Junior High Schools, High Schools and Higher Secondary Schools were not within the easy reach of the students in several areas, mainly in the hill districts. The acute shortage of essential infrastructures like school building, furniture and teaching kits in the schools made the situation hopeless. Pitifully, a large section of teachers was unqualified and untrained.

In-service education of teachers required to be strengthened to upgrade the professional competence of the teachers. Lack of motivation among teachers was considered to be a great handicap for improving the quality of education in the state. Teacher accountability was low. It was alleged that there was hardly any link between the pay scales of the teachers and their performance which left much to be desired.

Supervision and monitoring became ineffective. There was need to review the system and modernize it. Lack of adequate fund was another matter which was at the root of all problems being faced in school education. Allocation of funds for education in the state’s budget went down successively in every five year plan. The money available for education was so meagre that even minimum facilities could not be provided to the schools.

The unprecedented situation which was created that the trained teachers were again not accountable in their teaching in the classrooms, and the heads of institutions were rendered helpless due to too much interferences by local MLAs or ministers more often than not. Thus, reported the commission. In the educational reconstruction of the state, the headmaster is the vital link in raising the quality of school education.

Proper selection and replacement of the heads of schools are, therefore, very important for future development of education in Manipur. As at present, there are 174 Government high schools in Manipur, of which about 60 high schools have regular headmasters with about 15 regular Dls out of 44 posts of it. Alarmingly, there is not a single regular Asst Inspector of Schools under the school education department now out of 52 posts retained after right-sizing of the post of Als. It is highly essential that all future appointments of HMs/Dls/Als are made only through proper selection, not through madness keeping in view the seniority, qualifications, experiences and competencies of the teachers — both academic and administrative.

The existing staffing norms which are generally followed by the directorate in the matter of sanctioning of posts of teachers in Govt. schools are Cl. IA to V-one GT plus 5 teachers including one Hindi teacher, Cl.VI to VIII-2 Sc. GTs, 3 Arts GTs and one Hindi teacher, Cl.VI to X-4 Sc.GTs and one Hindi GT, one HM and one Asst HM. Additional teachers are allotted if there are more sections in a class, the teacher-pupil ratio, being 1-30.

However, a school cannot be deprived of the required number of posts of teachers sanctioned for it, merely on account of less number of students in a particular class. The arrangement is done solely, on the basis of class structure i.e. the minimum requirement of a junior high school having Cl.I to VIII is 12 teachers.

To set eyes on the recent posting manner of GTs appointed through DPC, it is not in the fitness of thing to have resorted to discriminatory allotment of posts of GTs, and the venture is far from achieving what we may call it the right pattern of staffing of government schools in Manipur, a dream yet to be realized.

The distribution has not fairly covered most of the hill and valley understaffed schools due to poor Educational Management Information System (EMIS) of the department. The reality is that schools which have surplus teachers have got a good number of new appointees. As it has happened like this, the normally understaffed schools which are viable have to suffer for another academic year in the state.

The posting arrangement has deviated from the purview of the State Education Commission’s recommendation. It is never encouraging.