DESAM calls BSEM den of corrupt officials
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, May 16 2024: Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BSEM), an important institution for education in the state, has become a den of corrupt officials, alleged Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (DESAM).

Addressing a press meet at its Kwakeithel office, here, on Thursday, DESAM secretary general Nongthombam Thoithoiba raised posers on the appointment of some staff in the board, which he termed as corrupt practice.

Such corrupt practices have become a public issue today and the education minister as well as senior officials of the department must be aware of the situation.

Unfortunately, no actions have been initiated by the authority concerned till date, he said while questioning the rationale for silence of the education minister over the matter and calling for effective steps to address the issue.

Thoithoiba further said that some senior officials in the board are trying hard to cover up their involvement in the issue.

Unless the government authority takes up immediate necessary action, the image of the institution would be damaged significantly, he said.

Taking advantage of the current conflict in the state, some organisations and private individuals, in hands with some officials of the board are distributing textbooks published by the board to displaced students.

This whole operation would involve around Rs 1.5 crore and the public can easily see the truth, which the authority is seemingly ignoring, the secretary general alleged and asked senior officials of the board to resign if they cannot control the institution.

On the other hand, the quality of textbooks, whether it is the paper or colour, is not satisfactory.

For instance, the textbook for class 2 Mathematics has several pages with blurred or missing texts, and poor colour quality.

The students are finding it hard to read the book, he said and enquired the reason behind accepting such textbooks printed in poor quality.

The board needs to maintain a proper quality control guideline for its textbooks and fix responsibilities on the printing press engaged with for lack of quality.

It should do away with the tradition of favouritism while printing textbooks but to award the printing order to printing presses that maintain standard quality, Thoithoiba said and drew attention of the chief minister in this regard.

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