Taking a long hard look at education here : Outside Manipur, why ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 25, 2023 -

Maximum efforts on to make the education sector here one of the best in the country.

This is none else but Education Minister Thounaojam Basanta and while the vision of the young man is acknowledged and noted, a pertinent question that arises whenever the state of education is talked about is, why do so many students make a beeline for their higher studies outside the State once they cross the Class XII level ?

A question worth pondering over, though no one has ever raised this poser at the right platform, despite ‘quality education’ being the slogan of many including some student organisations.

Students making a beeline for some of the more esteemed institutions or colleges and universities across the country is understandable for this means more exposure for the young mind and keener competition.

But when parents and elders of the family come to think that this is a necessity then this is something serious and any sensitive Government would have put their thoughts to this.

For the moneyed parents and elders of the family, sending their children to some of the ‘better placed’ institutions and universities across the country is acceptable, but when parents deem it necessary to cough up the needed funds through their nose, just so that their children can pursue their higher education outside, then there must be something seriously wrong here.

Ugly but this is the fact and the focus of the Government should be on studying why parents, elders of the family and the students themselves feel it important to go outside for their higher studies.

Apart from this, the Government may also seriously study why private tuition has become a sort of a necessity for all students at the school level, especially when the young student has to appear for the Class X and Class XII examinations.

Is it a case of the teachers not giving their best inside the classroom or a case of parents and guardians wanting more from their children and in the process exerting more pressure on the young minds ?

Or is it a case of teachers, particularly teachers of private schools looking for ways to make more money via private tuition ?

Perhaps the answer to this may be viewed against the pay that private school teachers receive at the end of every month.

Every year it is private schools which have been producing the better students.

A look at the Class X and Class XII board exams should more than testify this.

But this does not answer the question of whether the students have excelled because of what is taught at the school or because of the time that parents and elders have to make to take them to the numerous tuition and coaching classes which have sprung up all over ?

And private school teachers opting for giving private tuition can be better understood in the backdrop of the pay they receive every month.

Perhaps this is where the Government in conjunction with the Education (S) Department may study the feasibility of fixing a minimum payable salary to private school teachers.

Not many may realise this but parents and guardians have been made to make up for the pay that private school teachers receive via the tuition and coaching classes their children have to take when they reach the high school stage and this is where the Government may step in and ensure a minimum pay for all private school teachers.

Such a move will surely find backers amongst not only the teachers themselves but parents and guardians of young school students.

To take Manipur anywhere near the top bracket of education destination for young students, it would do good for everyone to first study how many students institutions in Manipur are able to attract from outside the State.

Guwahati, Shillong and Darjeeling have done it and Manipur should work towards this too.