Steeping stones to the future : Anxious days for all
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 21 2018 -

Anxious days. Not only for the students who are appearing for the Class X and Class XII examinations respectively conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur and the Council of Higher Secondary Examination, Manipur, but also for thousands of parents, guardians and elders of the family.

And rightfully so.

As in the past, it will again be private schools which will hog the limelight and if the past is any indication, there will be numerous post mortems and suggestions on how to improve the Government run schools, only to be forgotten after some time.

This has been the case for decades and nothing to expect that things will be any different this year.

The only change that all can see, though may not be felt by the serious and studious students, may be the fact that this is the first time that the HSLC and HSSLC exams are being conducted when there is a BJP led Government in Imphal.

Just how seriously the numerous civil society organisations have taken the HSLC and HSSLC examinations may be gauged from the fact that a good number of student organisations have taken it upon themselves to monitor the conduct of the examinations and check malpractices by the candidates.

Even ASUK, the joint body of two prominent armed organisations, has taken it upon itself to come out with a list of dos and don’ts to ensure that the examinations are conducted in a free and fair manner.

All reflective of how ‘dirty’ the Class X and Class XII examinations used to be some time back.

In fact so bad was the situation that during the Class X and Class XII examinations, the number of ‘helpers’ or note pushers almost equalled the number of candidates at any of the given exam centre.

Things have improved and cheating and use of unfair means is not as rampant as it was, particularly before an armed and banned organisation decided to crack the whip and come out strongly against use of unfair means as well as those who failed in their duty to check the use of unfair means.

It is in the ‘cleansed’ environment that thousands of students are today sitting for the HSLC and HSSLC examinations and the fact that the authority concerned cannot afford to go lax has been borne by the fact that six impersonators were detected on day 1 of the HSSLC examinations itself.

There could still be some other impersonators out there and perhaps the vigil should not be relaxed at all.

No untoward incident/s to disturb the academic pursuit of the young students so far this year and 2017 was definitely a better year than the previous years, as far as the academic pursuit of the young students is concerned, but this is no reason why the guards should be let down.

Let the students appear for the examinations without any disturbances and yet at the same time teach all the youngsters that cheating in exams amounts to nothing more than cheating oneself.

The Government and the civil society organisations, including the student organisations also need to pool their thoughts and study why thousands of students move outside the State to study after their Class XII.