It's that time of the year again.

The HSLC examinations are here, and the mad rush is on. Parents, tuition teachers, tutors, and the students are all in panic mode about their fate. It has taken the parents and the students about 12 long years to get this far, and their heads are full of facts, figures, challenges, portions and all that.

The HSLC examinations will give them their first real taste of a public examination. It is expected to be the catalyst to their upcoming efforts at making their life more meaningful. The cross-road this time around, is real.

Examinations as they exist today are a time tested method to bring out the best in a child. His abilities are put to the test, in a manner in which, he had not been tested before.

The students will be allotted different examination centers, schools which they had perhaps not even heard of before, and they will be put under the scrutiny of unfamiliar invigilators who will breathe down their necks during the hours that they will be within the examination hall.

The society therefore has a large role to play in ensuring that these exams are conducted in a free and fair atmosphere. The acid test is designed to prepare the child for higher goals in unusual environments. Guess, that's what life is all about.

We have read of alarming reports issued by the apex bodies conducting these examinations, namely the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur and the Council of Higher Secondary Education, that the numbers of students who take a shot at these exams are gradually reducing with each passing year.

This is absolutely disturbing, and merits serious deliberation by the academicians of the state. There are compelling reasons that are causing this downslide, which can be arrested at the right time, provided there is an honest desire to look at the scenario bravely.

It is best to acknowledge blunders wherever there have been and not sweep things under the carpet. If such a positive approach is assumed, then we can clearly address the issue in the right perspective.

Our academicians are professional enough to set things right, given a free hand without much outside interference to that task. Setting things in order should be the first priority to bring education back on the rails. So, let us begin by accepting that instead of being on the right and healthy track, our educational standards are lagging behind, as of today.

We have seen regular inputs coming into the educational outline of our state, time and time again. Many quarters, from student's organizations to other social groups have taken up issues to better the standards and usher in quality education. Most often, these things have been done on a somewhat reckless manner, rather than a technical manner. These have boomeranged in understated ways, though it has brought contentment to a handful.

The effort to boost up the changes brought about must be genuinely pursued in a scientific manner, progressively. Nothing should be done on impulse, or else the standards will only go down further. More and more students will look for other avenues, other boards, other states where things are steadier.

It is reliability, which students are looking for. It is that, which will help them to pursue their dreams of higher achievements. Confusion in the education field has created havoc in our region over the past few years. This is leading to a slow and steady decline in the healthy turnout of students who wish to take a shot at the prestigious examinations known as HSLC.

The time is therefore ripe, for a severe intellectual look at things, from the point of view of educationists and academicians, who have strives hard over the past years to instill the best that education can bring to the future generations. We have to let them act, so that the future will not blame us for our faults, which are seemingly done in good faith though.

Our responsibility as a matured society will be dubious, if we don't let this be done now. Let there be a healthy and genuine effort, done by the appropriately qualified people, who are there amongst us, to bring our educational standards back on even keel with the rest of the world.

We must prove to the world that Manipur is a place that is ready to embrace the world with patience, understanding, love and a spirit of healthy competition. We do not wish to remain in the darkness of our limitations, but would rather twist our fortunes around, given the chance.

Limitations have always been there with every civilization, at various points of time. That is a natural law of evolution on our planet.

Nothing has lasted forever, nor will it last forever. Except that mysterious monster called Time, who waits for no man or thing, but will surely get to all of us one day soon. Let us not bend him to our side, but run to catch up with his pace, in any way we can. If not, then let us at least match strides with him.

Good luck young students!

Take these exams seriously, don't indulge in cheating. Remember, it is not only your reputation at stake if you are caught using unfair means, but also the reputations of your entire family, school and in more faint ways, also reflects on all of us out on the street, while you are there in the classroom, writing your papers.

We need excellent folks among you to come out with flying colours, for the brilliance of our society itself.

Our future hopes rest on your shoulders.