Time for parents to make informed decisions : Merchants of education
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 06 , 2014 -

It is that time of the year and the merchants of education have slowly but surely started trickling in.

To those whose habit of reading the daily newspapers goes beyond the news and the articles and editorial, it must be clear to them that about 40 pc of the advertisements that appear in the Imphal based newspapers are about coaching centres, private tutorials and educational fairs.

Not surprising given the fact that after Class 12, most of the students prefer to go outside to pursue their higher studies, interact with the outside world and broaden their vision.

And so it is that quite a number of institutions come calling to town with dollops of promises which include placement facilities and all the other paraphernalia that have come to be associated with the system that passes off as education in this age.

Nothing wrong with this, but with so many lining up and offering the ‘best’ options to the students, parents and guardians need to be on their toes all the time to ensure that they and their wards and children are not taken for a ride.

This is where the elders need to do some serious homework while choosing the institutions as well as in guiding their children to take a career option.

All parents have the best intentions for their kids, there can be no exception to this (except of course for some of the demented minds, who have made it to the news for all the wrong reasons), but all the good intentions can backfire or come to naught if the parents and guardians go in for the wrong choices.

And there are sharks out there who will not hesitate to milk the situation and literally rob the parents and guardians of all their hard earned money and life savings and in the process ruin the career and future of their children.

With the cut throat competition everywhere the responsibilities of the parents have grown manifold and merely sending their children to the ‘best’ tutorial centres or educational institutions, which offer the ‘best’ facilities is no longer enough.

They need to do their homework, study the antecedents of each institution or tutorial centres and accordingly make informed decision.

Hawking education.

This may sound a bit too harsh, but the reality is there are many innovative elements out there who are out to make a killing out of the prevailing situation here.

So far there is nothing much to suggest that the State Government has put in place a mechanism to check the antecedents of all the institutions who come to town to hawk their wares in the name of education and perhaps it is time to put up such a mechanism, a strict one at that. Luring or enticing people with promises of a good future for their children or wards is a win-win situation for the merchants of education.

But remember education cannot be commodified. Education cannot be put on sale as the goods at a shopping plaza or a mall.

The need to realise this is of utmost importance for after all we are talking about the future pillars of our society and no elses’.

The Sangai Express has been consistent in its stand against the growing culture of private tuitions at the school and higher secondary level and extend this to the higher seats of learning and it is but natural for us to be more concerned about the higher seats of learning.

Educating our children means educating ourselves too. This is the bottom line.

At the moment, the merchants of education have just started trickling in, but in a few days or weeks from now, we can expect a deluge, especially after the results of the Class X and Class XII boards exams are announced.

There is still time for the parents to do their homework and make informed decisions.

It is not only the students who are on test but also parents and guardians.