Flawed system and lop-sided results
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 15 2015 -

Once again, the glaring facts have come out and one cannot miss it.

One need not go into all the details. Just go through the statistical abstract compiled by the Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BOSEM).

Of course, we are talking about the HSLC Exam 2015 results declared today.

Application of a little bit of analytical approach would reveal the failures, lapses and loopholes plaguing the State’s education system.

The pass percentage is just 61.52 which means 13,235 students failed to crack the exam.

Somewhere, something is seriously wrong.

Again, none of the Government schools with the exception of Jiribam Higher Secondary School made it to the top 25 merit list.

This is nothing new and there is no element of surprise.

Private schools have been stealing the limelight every year.

We are afraid if some Government schools drew completely blank in the result sheet.

Who should be blamed for the failure of the 13,235 students?

Should we blame the Government, teachers or the parents or the students themselves?

Dullness or laziness cannot be the sole factor for the failure of such a large number of students and it would not be too far-fetched to assume that majority of these students is studying in Government schools.

The ever widening gap between students of Government schools and private schools is largely a result of complete privatization and commercialization of education sector in the State.

This gap is becoming something unbridgeable as reflected in the HSLC Exam results year after year.

But again, who is promoting privatization and commercialization of education?

It’s the failure of the system, and of course, the State machinery.

When the opportunity of quality education is not given to all students uniformly, socio-economic disparity within the society is bound to grow and this disparity has all the potential to become a permanent malady.

It is a matter of serious concern that private tuition is assuming the character of an all pervasive tradition in our society.

We do agree that private tuition equips students better to face examinations.

At the same time, it evokes a question of fairness. Whereas the level of competitiveness is rising year after year, the arena of competition is shrinking reciprocally.

Competition and sense of competitiveness has already become an exclusive domain of private and mission schools only.

The rising popularity of private tuition and coaching centres has its roots in the Indian education system where marks secured in the examinations are used as the sole criterion to measure a student’s abilities.

This system of judging a student’s potential and ability defies the very purpose of schools, which is to prepare students for examinations and more importantly for life beyond.

Again, private tuition contradicts the aim of education, that is, to make students think and nurture their innate potentials.

Underscoring the flawed education system which has deviated quite afar from its intended line, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) recommended in 2005 that education should be for nurturing multiple intelligence in order to fructify the full potential of each child.

And this has to be supported by a constructivist approach to learning and a flexible, scientifically designed student assessment system.

Are the State’s policy-makers listening?