KYKL bans Slopeland Public School
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, September 30 2022: The proscribed Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) has imposed ban on functioning of Slopeland Public School, Khongjom in Thoubal district from the academic session 2023-24 .

While announcing the ban, a KYKL statement issued by its publicity and research secretary A Yaiphaba appealed to parents and guardians of the students to transfer their children to other schools within the next three months.

It also said that the ban was declared after discussing for over one year and as such parents and guardians of students of the school should not consider the announcement of the ban as a trivial matter.

The KYKL further said that WE-SEA, the north eastern part of India, is a region where there have been insurgency movements rejecting the idea of the region being a part of India.

Being a part of this region, 'Kangleipak' has also long fought for its independence from India.

Unquestionably, an insurgency movement initiated by a group of people in pursuit of their inalienable rights has been recognised as a political act by international law.

Moreover, the organisations and people associated with the movement are also recognised by the same law.

Launching a liberation movement costs a lot of money, much like running a government.

The state levies taxes on the general public to generate the funds required for maintaining a government.

The 'Lallup Kaba' of Kanglei history is also a form of tax that people paid in the form of service.

Similarly, a revolutionary government levies taxes on the people.

Here, everyone should be aware of the fact that, unlike making a donation, paying taxes is not something that one does in accordance with their preferences and that the tax rate is not set by the taxpayers.

Tax is something that no one can avoid paying, and the rate is determined by those who collect the tax, not the taxpayers.

If the rate seems excessive, it is possible to negotiate it, but it is impossible to avoid paying any tax at all.

Tax evaders must face consequences of their actions.

Any government, be it a state government or a revolutionary government, is governed by such a law, the KYKL statement said.

In the past four years, the outfit requested Slopeland Public School, an affiliate of CBSE, to provide an annual tax to the organisation.

Few years back, while the outfit was taking up ONK (Operation New Kangleipak) movement, the outfit urged the institution to comply with certain principles and norms in order to save the ever-deteriorating education system in Manipur and stop using unfair means in examinations.

However, the school authority ignored and did not care about it.

Later, when asked to pay a tax to the organisation, they did not listen to the request either.

They refused to allow representatives of the outfit to meet, did not accept letters, and did not answer phone calls.

This means that the principal and authority of the school stand against KYKL and the liberation struggle it is spearheading while viewing KYKL as flimsy and powerless.

Accordingly, the outfit resolved to ban the functioning of the school starting from the 2023-2024 academic session.

The KYKL statement further said that opening of schools, colleges and other institutions in Manipur is entirely commercial these days and there is simply no aspect of social work involved in establishing educational institutions.

They usually engage in a number of unethical and excessive practices in order to earn profit including supporting the students directly or indirectly by school authorities in using unfair means during examination, utilising manipulative tactics to increase student pass rate, engaging in shady dealings to produce more position-holders, hiring question setters to surreptitiously teach their students, investing a substantial sum of money to enrol position-holder students in their institutions, influencing higher authorities through corruption to give their students excellent grades, exploiting school teachers, collecting outrageously high admission fees, and imposing a bunch of unnecessary fees.

Much like operating a corporate organisation, banks lend money to schools and a chartered accountant calculates their income and expenses.

Thus, the profit-making strategies of capitalism have come into play in the held of education as well.

The neo-liberal market economy's destruction of the sanctity of education despite the fact that it is a current trend won't lead to anything positive.

Rather, it will impact the society in negative ways.

At this stage, it is critical to realise that not all facets of society are to be evaluated solely in terms of money and profit, the KYKL statement observed.

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