The need : Knowledge based education - Growing trend of private tuition
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 22 , 2014 -
It was a welcome departure from the charges and counter charges between political parties in the run up to the election to the two Parliamentary seats as well as after polling.
The one day seminar on present trend of examination in the secondary and senior secondary level conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur, Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur and Central Board of Secondary Education on April 18 was like a breath of fresh air, something removed from the everyday news stories that hit the pages of the newspapers in Manipur.
Apart from deliberating on myriad of issues concerning examinations conducted by these boards and council, the eight point recommendations adopted during the seminar should be taken with the seriousness it deserves.
Whether the Government, particularly the Education Department will just sit on the recommendations or act upon them is something which only time will tell, but a beginning has been made.
A good beginning, if one may add. There is however the need to look beyond examination, if the real essence of education is to take firm roots on the soil of Manipur.
Knowledge, that is what education should be all about and not just marks that one scores in the examination.
That the students are not taught properly inside the class rooms is a reality which is reflected by the growing trend of private tuitions.
This is an issue which all concerned parents should seriously study.
It is not for nothing that there is the general observation that if one has two kids, the parents will spend at least eight years in ferrying their children to the tutors’ place, that is from Class IX to Class XII.
Private tuitions do help, but isn’t this trend a reflection of the reality that not much is taught inside the classrooms of the schools, however reputable the school may be ?
There seems to be a pattern or a design behind this. With most private schools paying pittance to the teachers, it is but natural for them to rely on private tuitions to make both ends meet.
So with most teachers more concerned with the fat pay check that comes from tutoring, they are more than likely not to give their best inside the class rooms, making it compulsory for students to attend private tuitions.
Perhaps the same personalities who graced the one day seminar on the present exam trends and came out with the 8 point recommendations could give a thought on organising one such seminar on the growing culture of private tuitions.
Attending coaching centres to crack the Pre-Medical Test or Engineering entrance examination is understandable, for the young minds need to be oriented to the test they are going to face.
But private tuitions becoming compulsory for appearing for the board’s exam is stretching things a little too far.
Not healthy competition but encouraging a trend or a culture which only make the young students rely on others instead of exercising their mental faculty.
Time to get to the gist of knowledge based education and not merely marks based education.
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