Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, September 16, 2009:
In what could be termed as one of the worst stages for the student community since the beginning of the current academic session, students of the state have already missed 31 days of learning due to different bandhs, strikes, government imposed curfews, and the calls for class boycott by two students' bodies.
Meanwhile, most of the educational institutions in Imphal area including Manipur University � the highest educational institution of the state � have gone without any class on Wednesday even as the government has urged parents and school authorities to resume normal classes.
Academic session of this year has begun since the first week of February.
Classes have been taken for only 117 days till mid September.
The trend indicates that students are worst hit by the disorderliness in the state.
Independent source indicated that there were 16 working days in February while there were 19 working days in March.
Working days in April were 7, 16 days in May, 22 days in June, 21 days in July, 9 days in August and till the fist half of September there were only seven working days.
Officially, there have to be 65 holidays during the session including Sundays and government notified holidays.
In fact, there have already been 48 general holidays including Sundays.
Students have lost ten days since February due to various general strikes called by different organisations.
There were five 'unannounced' holidays in February due to the imposition of curfew to contain the agitation against the backdrop of the killing of Dr Kishan and two of his staffs.
Classes were ceased for another 9 days in August due to the imposition of curfew in order to contain the people's agitation in the wake of the expos� of the fake encounter killing at Khwairamband Bazar.
It's been a week now since students joined the protest wagon in response to the class boycott calls given by two students' bodies.
No class has been taken during the period.
As there is no indication that the current upheaval would die down sooner, given the tussle, the worst casualties may continue to be the students.
It is pertinent to mention that no student was seen attending class today even as the government authority has issued strict instruction against private schools that remain closed in response to the boycott calls by students' organisations.
However, teachers were said to have attended normal classes.
Since no student used to turn up for classes, the teachers have departed by 2pm these days.
The Manipur police commandos have also conducted routine patrolling around schools.
They were reported to have instructed the teachers to tell their students to attend classes.
Schools in other districts of the state are reported to have taken normal classes though.