Why are Government schools lagging behind ?

Dr Ramkhok Raikhan *

As the result is declared, now it's time for many to celebrate. The recently announced COHSE M's result clearly presents to us that most of the toppers in all streams are students from private schools, with the exception of few from government schools. Congratulations to all the successful candidates and to schools which have helped you achieve this result.

My best wishes for your future career. My concern here however, is the government schools and students from those schools. No one can deny the poor result of government schools.

What is suppressing the government schools and their students? Why are they not capable enough to compete with the students of private schools? Who should be blamed?

Look, when it comes to employment most of us prefer to be employed in government schools than to be a teacher in private schools. And many people jokingly say teachers in private schools are the left-out candidates who could not compete with teachers of the government schools. Is this correct? May be or maybe not. But the real fact comes around when every year Manipur Board declares result.

If we assume that teachers at government schools are more qualified then why is the result poorer comparing to private schools? Are we, teachers of government schools not ashamed of this reality? One may argue, students in government schools are weak and parents send them just for the sake of getting a degree. Well, it may be true. But this is not the leeway to escape from being blamed.

We forget to ask one fundamental question, that is, why do parents not send the better students to government schools when they know that teachers out there are qualified teacher, more qualified than the teachers of private schools? Here's the biggest irony.

We want the better, we know the better, we choose the worse, and we get better result. This leads to a very big question to me. That is, is it the quality of the teacher or sincerity of the teacher that matters? Presumably, in this scenario what matters more is the sincerity of the teachers not the quality.

On the flip side of this, one can also think of, may be most of the teachers at government schools are being purchased. May be, it is not through fair competition that teachers have been recruited. And that is the reason why many smart and qualified candidates have been shunted out and forced them to take up job in private schools.

There is a possibility otherwise the result of government schools can't be poorer than the private school's result. Who should be blamed?

One can also think that the onus is on the regulating authority, Education Department. Has the regulating authority done its task? Is the regulating authority properly regulating the many government schools spread across the state? Of course the employees of the schools are being paid regularly if not after few months in lump sum by Manipur government.

However, its job is not only paying salary to the employees but more importantly to regulate the effective functioning of the schools. Is the regulating authority regularly checking the performances of the teachers, basic amenities of the schools, transfer and posting of teachers etc? I am afraid that the regulating authority is doing its job effectively.

And now that the result is out, the authority may, based on the statistical result will peruse each school performance and think of taking negative action to those schools which have not performed satisfactorily, which is totally absurd to me.

It's absurd because at the first instance the authority has neglected to see through each school environment and condition. This being not done by the authority, everything breaks down- including the negligence of teachers at government schools.

It appears to me that most teachers, in government schools are not sincere. Most likely they work only for pay and are agitated only when their pay is not regularly paid. It seems like teachers do not care about the performances of the students, otherwise the result cannot be as poor as we can see today.

It seems like teachers in government schools are living in their comfort without responding to the needs of the students. It seems like teachers are seeking transfer and posting according to their convenience only, without considering their responsibility as a teacher.

Of course, teachers can become irresponsible if the regulating authority let loose of the teachers. And if the teachers and authority are irresponsible then there's no scope for the students to do well in examination.

What I have stated in the above paragraphs is my opinion regarding the poor performance of government schools. As a teacher myself, I have the urge to improve the standard of the students of government schools which triggers me to think upon the reasons why is it so.