Education & Teachers in Manipur

Sanjenbam Jugeshwor Singh *

Students appearing for Class X Exam on 04th March 2019 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam

The status of education is flexible in nature; so it can change anytime, unlike manmade human status, which had the rigid structure with stratified, hierachiaracal order, which is based on birth. However in the classless society, education lift up the status of person according to the attainment of educational qualification with the standard of earning in livelihood. The richer a person the higher status a person attained in society.

Likewise the standard of education have also numerous status based on how the state run the educational institution in the country. Reputed educational institute is looked up by the society and this educational institute produce high quality of human resource while on the other hand the low-grade educational institute produce quantity of human resource, which endanger the socio-economic of the society. Development of education depends upon how the state provides education to the people and how the state played the role in shaping the education sector.

Education is considered as the investment of human resources and most of the developed countries have attained the benefits of investing in education. The quality of providing education in the past and present stages depicts the status of development at present and future generation.The better in quality of imparting education, the higher in attainment of educational status and the faster in development take place, which depends upon the condition of the specific state.

Education is the most important driver to deliver development when it is driven in the right direction whereas education which is driven in the narrow lane without aim to achieve the status of vertical position is difficult to bring development and confuse the driver to which direction to go in order to deliver socio-economic development .

System in education is one of the main ingredients in education sector to trigger the status of education at high level. The education system is the catalyst that translates creativity into innovation and when you have innovation you have entrepreneurship, you have development of business. This can only happen if the education system gets inclined with the needs of the economy, the perennial question of "Who Pays" is bridged and mobility between all the sectors happening smoothly.

The status of education in Manipur is unique when we compared to other states of the country as well as to different countries. Due to political instability in the state, instead of integrating and promoting the education system in the state, the system of education is fragmented and it disrupts the environment of educational institute vary badly.

The upcoming generation has uncertain future because the state failed to provide quality education to build a better state and nation for tomorrow's generation. The dearly implemented education policies were not much effective and it collides the adopted policies. To give a meaningful definition upon pursuing education, from foundation level of pursuing knowledge will depict the future scope of a person in climbing the stages of higher education.

Whereas imparting low level of education during the foundation level of learning and providing the best quality education in the higher stage could not lead to a successful academic career because a person could not adapt to the high quality of imparting education.

Thus resulted in failure of a person's educational career in higher stage.The state government/central run institute is not able to provide required necessary needs to existing government run educational institutes and instead government recruited teaching and non-teaching staffs on contract basis with paltry monthly salary moreover the monthly salary was also not paid in time even for SSA,RMSA teachers.

And recently there was a big hue & cry for the 7th pay of college teachers but withdraw their agitation after assuremce given by cabinet on 10th February,however the real outcome of the assuremce is yet to be seen.Let's hope for the best.Regular teachers were careless and negligent in their duties.

Besides they got their monthly salary easily and they even earned extra income by taking up other activities . When it comes to the recruited staffs on contract basis they are placed in the fathom of the organization. Due to unequal treatment they broke down their patient but still they are not brave enough to voice for their rights as they have the apprehensions of termination or non-extension of their services which causes them anxiety and unable them to deliver their expertise effectively.

Everybody says, teaching profession is a noble job, practically however, the nobility of teaching job in the general perception of public as reflected in our present day status conscious materialistic society seems to be discouraging, as nothing noble has been shown to the teachers by the society. In civilized society as in ancient Greece, teachers are regarded as semi-Gods and even worshipped by the pupils.

Truly the fountain of knowledge and wisdom flows from the nature-gifted teachers who are possessors of intrinsic qualities of teaching. In other words, teaching is not everybody's job as teachers are not common people and common people cannot be a successful teacher. It requires special skills and techniques which nature has ordained as in-born qualities.

It is therefore, a pre-requisite to introspect oneself if the realities of teaching in him/her before opting teaching as a profession because the onus of continuing the unaccomplished work of God in making human beings ( pupils) realized ,self-realization rests with the teachers. It may be stated that God created human beings instilled in them the seeds of wisdom and knowledge. But it is the teachers who like gardeners nurtured the seeds to its full stature.

Now-a-days the general perception of the people towards the teachers is excruciatingly humiliating and disgraceful as the job of teaching has been reduced to the most unattractive job. Precisely teaching job has become a purchasable profession.

In this age of stiff competitive world, especially in the field of education where the wealth of the nations are measured in terms of the standard of education of its people , it is disheartening and shameful to learnt that the teachers who are regarded as builders of the nation's pillars are on strikes, dharanas, class boycott etc interrupting now and then.

The normal regular classes of the students in this strike infested and academic uncertain state become sluggish, as teachers are demanding audience of the authorities to pressurized their legal as well as constitutional service rights.

It may not be an over-statement to say that in almost all cases the demands of the teachers are genuine in as much as they are fully aware of the legality of their demands. Indeed teachers are fully conscious about the constitutionality of their rights and would not demand the things beyond the permissible limits specifically laid down in the rules.

And the most intriguing question which pricks the conscience of the academicians and the scholars in our state who by profession are not necessarily a teacher is about the stoic silence and indifferent attitude of the state government / authority towards the teachers specially the contract ones whenever issues affecting the teachers arose.

As long as we draw our teachers in the street corners to organize sit-in- protest. dharnas, class boycott etc, to demand what is constitutionally due to them , our civilization is incomplete because teachers voices are heard with dignity in all civilized societies.

It is an undeniable truth that changes in the society since ancient times originates from educational institutions, verily, all civilization in the world past and present emanates from the brains of the teachers and those educational institutions manned by the teachers in all countries and in all ages.

In order to bring about a change in the society, every individual must change himself or herself and change their perception towards the teachers. Most importantly, those who are in the higher administrative hierarchy of the government must unavoidably change their mindset towards the teacher as they themselves owe gratitude to their teachers. It is the selfless service and devotion of the teachers towards their students that produced bureaucrats, teachers, scientists, educationists, politician etc.