Destination Manipur for institutions; Marketing education
- Sangai Express Editorial :: June 07, 2013 -

The trend is insightful.

The timing is right too.

With the Central Board of Secondary Education, Indian Council of School Education, the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur and the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur having declared the results of the Class X and Class XII examinations, educational institutions of all hues and colours appear to have laid their road map towards Manipur and maybe some other States of the North East.

Fairs on education, counselling sessions, the subjects offered with job guarantee being the most attractive package of almost all the institutions who come down here to open shop.

Scholarships are on offer too with schemes thrown in to waive off certain components of the fees payable by the students.

Nothing wrong per se in this and if private educational institutions think that the talents and merits of the young students of Manipur can be tapped and put to good use, then it says something significant about the potential of the young boys and girls.

Sounds like a fairy tale and herein hangs a tale.

Marketing education or seriously and sincerely offering a platform to the young students to realise their potential ? All parents, guardians and the students themselves need to be armed with these questions whenever they approach any of the private educational institutions which rush down to Manipur at this particular period of time.

There is everything right in being prepared.

In the absence of institutions offering courses, other than the conventional courses, which can equip the youngsters with the life skill they will need later, Manipur is obviously a veritable destination for the 'hawkers' of education.

This is not to paint all the institutions which have set up shop here with the same brush, but a thorough home work and understanding of the finer nuances of the hidden costs and the 'curtains' drawn on the assurances will not hurt and can only benefit everyone.

With the Government obviously being busy with other more 'important' issues and in the absence of an institutionalised mechanism to check and confirm the antecedents of all the educational institutions which come to town to set up shop, the onus of understanding 'what is left unsaid' should then rests on the parents and guardians.

Advertisement is meant to highlight the excellence of any product or institution, education in this case, and this fact should not be lost on anyone seeking a better platform to prepare their children and wards.

Awareness is the key here and to be aware automatically calls for home work.

The world has considerably moved from the Gurukul system of yore, the Guru-Shishya relationship is now history.

Education today means big money.

Money to be spent or to invest for the parents and guardians and money too for the institutions for their upkeep and of course to meet the required standards.

This is the reality and refusing to accept this as the reality would amount to confining oneself to the age of the dinosaurs.

Let there be counselling sessions, let there be education fairs, let private institutions set up shop here, but most importantly the parents and guardians should be aware of what is happening and should ready themselves to see the hidden costs as well as see through the promises and assurances, which may be cleverly 'camouflaged' and brought by the merchants of education.

Education as a market has grown by leaps and bounds and while there is nothing wrong with this, the need for everyone to be on their toes and see the chaff from the grains has become all that more important.