BOSEM and COHSEM keeping time : School education and beyond
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 19 2015 -

One of those rare occasions. That is when the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur and Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur manage to beat the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations in declaring the Class X and Class XII examinations.

While the AISCE has announced the results of the Indian Council of Secondary Education and Indian School Certificate examinations (Class X and Class XII) on May 19, the CBSE is expected to follow suit sometime in the latter part of May.

Not often that the State boards manage to beat the AISCE and the CBSE in announcing the Class X and Class XII examinations but this year it has been a different story.

Something very different from what the situation was like a few decades back.

Back in the 80s and earlier, the story was totally different.

Year after year, students from Manipur had to lose a year if they intended to pursue their higher studies outside Manipur and given the situation at the college level here, it meant that most of the students had to lose an academic year or at times even two if they wanted to move outside.

Why this was so has never been satisfactorily explained but it is nonetheless good to see that things are changing for the better.

Another thing that has become a thing of the past is the time the results are announced.

A few years back it was not uncommon to see the Class X and Class XII results being announced in the dead of the night.

A point which made no sense at all and it was left to the Imphal based newspapers to race against time and see which newspaper house managed to print the result sheets the earliest.

It was not an uncommon sight to see anxious parents, guardians and students thronging the offices of the newspapers to hear or see the results and not the offices of BOSEM or COHSEM.

For the professionals engaged in the job of disseminating information to the public and making sure that the newspapers make it to the news stand early the next morning, the day of the result meant a day of headache.

Not only had they to race against time to meet the deadline but also to cope with the extremely noisy and irritating queries about the results of any candidate.

Fortunately this seems to have become a thing of the past and if results can be announced in good time and during day time now, why couldn’t this have been practised earlier ?

Why were results announced in the night earlier ?

Why did it take months for the Board and Council to announce the results of Class X and Class XII (or Pre-University Course, as it was known then) ?

The pass percentage in both Class X and Class XII this year was pathetic and something should be done to ensure that things improve in the coming years.

This at a time when the performance of young students across the country and the world has improved by leaps and bound.

A look at the cut off percentage of some colleges in Delhi University in the last few years should suffice.

In a few years from now, the young students who have just finished their Class X and Class XII will become the main architects of society.

The question is whether parents, elders, guardians and the Government have trained them for the future that lies ahead.

One needs to look beyond the performance of the young students in the Class X and Class XII examinations.