Education No to populist move : Inspiring story
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 31, 2012 -

Education Minister M Oken congratulating Md Ismat, who tops the CBSE exam, 2012 on May 29 2012
Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

Populist measures can only have an appeal caged by time and circumstances.

And politicians are generally known to thrive on populist measures since it serves them two purposes. For one it helps to tune in with the sentiments and emotions of the people and secondly it can go a long way in covering up their lack of initiative in framing the right or correct policy.

Amid the power cuts, the growing bandh and blockade culture and the all round apathy, the news that a student from Manipur had topped the Class XII examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi came like a whiff of fresh breathe.

From a lower middle class family, the story of Md Ismat, the young lad who scored an unbelievable 99.8 pc in the Class XII examination after failing to continue his studies at Sainik School, Imphal due to the relatively higher cost there, is the stuff that inspires and encourages all and sundry.

Education Minister M Oken was quick to the draw and jumped onto the bandwagon of the cheering multitudes and came out with the generous financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the student and another Rs 10 lakh to the institution which took him in at a relatively lesser fee.

This is fine and may just about send out the right signal to all the youngsters that there is nothing like hard and sincere labour but lest the Government lose their vision in the cacophony rung out by the stupendous showing of Md Ismat, a reminder may just be line that such a gesture cannot replace Government policies to address the situations in which young students find themselves in today.

M Oken, the young man at the helm of the Education portfolio has already spoken out his intention of putting the education system on track within a period of six months and while the earnestness of the new man at the block is noteworthy, it would do well for him and his men at the Education Department that there are loads and loads of work to be done before anything can be said about the system that passes off as education here.

The State Cabinet has already decided to set up the Manipur Education Service. This is something which has long been felt necessary but it remains to be seen how the State Government proposes to go ahead with its new agenda.

What however has been stressed is the need to attract the best possible brain to the profession of teaching, more so at the school level, where the performance of all Government schools in the HSLC and HSSLC examinations has been pathetic in the last couple of decades.

The Public-Private Partnership model of running Government schools has already been put in place at some select schools of the State and while its impact on the overall performance of the students and Government schools is yet to be felt, it would do no harm to the new Education Minister to see if there are rooms for improvement or whether this is the right answer to the situation besetting the State.

Improving the education system cannot be seen in isolation. The Government may have plans to extend the benefits of computer knowledge to all the young students enrolled in Government schools, but this plan is sure to go for a big six in the face of the acute power poverty as witnessed right now.

The Government may rope in the best brains via the Manipur Education Service, but this too will backfire if the men formulating the transfer and posting policy of the teachers refuse to see beyond the crisp notes.

The best of infrastructure will fall flat on its face, if the State continues to reel in an atmosphere of mediocrity with the public unable to remove the blinkers from their eyes.

In short, the task ahead is not easy and it will take more than Rs 5 lakh to a brilliant student to stem the rot. M Oken has his task cut out and as a member of the Council of Ministers, he needs to take the others along with him in his endeavour to better the education system in the State.