Education : More than admission to an institution : Primary teachers in Higher Sec School
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 31, 2013 -

If this is the Government's idea of thinking out of the box, they may as well stop thinking altogether.

Primary teachers deputed on duty at a Higher Secondary School, TG Higher Secondary School in this case, and it cannot get wackier than this.

The Government certainly seems to have mastered the art of 'mad policies' under the garb of meeting the educational needs of the students.

Admit all students who come to seek admission at TG Higher Secondary School, Johnstone Higher Secondary School, CC Higher Secondary School and some of the other more sought after Government run educational institutions in Imphal, is the policy that has obviously led to this situation.

Not questioning the merits or qualifications of the Primary teachers deputed to teach Class XI and Class XII students in the Science and Arts stream.

For all practical purposes, the primary teachers may well be highly qualified, with a sound academic background and be able to teach the students effectively. But this is besides the point.

A clear demonstration that the Government has failed to come up with a coherent plan to go along with the decision not to turn back any student who comes to seek admission to these schools.

In announcing that all students who come to seek admission at these institutions will be admitted, which obviously come higher up in the list of preference for the parents and students, the Government did ring out the message that it would encourage students and not deny them the opportunity to pursue further studies at the institutions of their choice. Not bad.

But it seems to have flown over the heads of the people who matter that such a grandiose plan or policy needs to be backed by a coherent and logical plan.

That it has failed to do so is there for all to see and this is where the Government or more specifically the Education Department seems to be talking hot air. And everyone knows what this is all about.

Half baked. Half cooked. Unprepared. Adhocism. These are traits that are written in bold all over the grand policy of the Government.

Certainly not the way in which education should be dealt with or managed.

Living up to the sarcastic and witty observation that common sense is the most uncommon sense amongst the babudom who are there to frame policies and programmes of the people.

Education Minister M Okendro may have his heart in the right place but policies and programmes cannot be dictated by the beat of the heart, but by how the mind works.

Rewind a year back and it was amid much gusto and hype that the Education Department announced that all students who seek admission at some of the institutions mentioned above would be accommodated.

Cut to the present and the question is what has been done to make sense out of the 'would be accommodated' policy or stand of the Government.

Accommodating students in the institutions of their choice should not be equated with imparting education. Education goes far beyond admission.

And certainly cramming in 100 students in a class room which are meant to seat 60 or say even 70 students goes against the grain of accommodating the students. Education does not begin and end with admission.

This is the thumb rule of education. Accommodating them without the needed infrastructure to impart education would defeat the very idea and purpose of giving the students the opportunity of studying in the institutions of their choice.

That these fundamental and basic facts have not been addressed to is what rankles.

Primary teachers posted in a Higher Secondary School is a perfect reflection of a Government not knowing how to cope with a policy it has adopted.

This is unacceptable.