State of higher education here : Creating the right environment
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 07 2019 -

Election year and while the major political parties and the people as a whole will obviously be in poll mode, no one should forget to address the state of higher education in the State.

Not the first time that The Sangai Express has touched on this and this will definitely not be the last either.

The Class X and Class XII examinations are on and this is time to seriously look into the state of higher education in the State or else thousands of rupees will continue to flow outside the State every month.

This is also a question which the civil society organisations and the numerous student bodies should be concerned with.

Why do so many parents and elders deem it better to send their children outside the State to study ?

For each student based outside the State, it means spending at least Rs 10 to 15 thousand per month and this is a toll which the State has had to pay for the past so many years.

Has the right atmosphere been created for the students to pursue their studies without any disturbance ?

The reality should tell it own story and this is where all need to come together and see how things may be worked out.

It is not for any reason why a student organisation like DESAM has coined the phrase ‘education without disturbance’ and has pledged to make education a free zone.

Why should any issue that disturbs the society disturb the academic pursuit of students or more pointedly why should students be expected to take these issues and in the process derail their academic pursuit ?

Many may argue that it is students who should take up issues concerning the people, but taking up issues and creating the right environs for them to study are two different things.

The results of the Class XII examinations conducted by the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur will be declared soon and like in the previous years, thousands of students from Manipur can expect to be sent outside the State to pursue their higher studies.

And not all will get into the reputed colleges and not all will crack NEET and the engineering entrance examinations conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education.

So students who prefer or are made to pursue their higher education such as BA Honours, BSc Honours and BCom honours, will have to look outside the State.

And again here not all will make the cut for the more prestigious colleges.

Since the right atmosphere has not been created for the young students to pursue their higher education, thousands continue to go outside the State and this does not say anything good about the overall situation here.

Time for all to come together and minutely study why the right atmosphere continues to elude the young students here.

There are good colleges here and the only thing needed is to create the right environment for the young students to pursue their higher academics.

This is where the numerous student organisations can play an important role.

It will also be interesting if any of the major political parties can make higher education their key point in the coming Lok Sabha elections.