Monday will remain one of the most memorable days in the history of education in Manipur. The day saw the shocking demolition of the historic Kakhulong Junior High School right in the heart of the city, while on the other hand a local Muslim student Md Ismat topping the all India CBSE/AISSCE 2012. Like in sports Manipuris have been excelling in the field of education also. The results season will be full of success stories of our students surpassing students of other states with much more better facilities in the race for the top positions in varied study disciplines. Our boys and girls have also topped in various universities across the country. This simply reflects the sheer energy and the innate strength of our youth who continue to excel despite several obstacles thrown up by the conflict situation. We need to understand the dimensions of this potent energy while framing policies specially with regard to education and youth. Education received a powerful boost recently with the new Education minister announcing his plans to change the landscape. We had expressed our reservations on whether the minister will be able to achieve the desired results in the 6-month timeframe that he has set. Yet we must appreciate the intent that he has expressed. We had serious misgivings about the ‘model school’ apparatus rolled out by his predecessor, as selective impetus is against the spirit of system overhaul of education in the state. It was in fact discrimination as it involves neglect of the other schools. In simple words, it was a misguided policy. For framing a good education policy we need a multi-disciplinary approach. The government needs to rope in intellectuals, eminent educationists, experts in diversified fields including psychologists for extraction of a collective wisdom. In modern education, we also need the services of people who understand child psychology and adolescent behavior as against the existing social system. The whole idea is about channelizing the innate energy of our youth towards positive streams. As we said before, system overhaul of education is not only about recruiting qualified teachers and an effective monitoring system, good school buildings, a support system in terms of equipments and aids or for that matter a good transfer and posting policy for the teachers. The content or the curriculum is one of the most important issues besetting modern day education. We have to be very careful about what we teach our children. Even developed states are revisiting their own school education system to usher in a competitive edge to their youth. And we are pulling down school buildings here. Let us keep aside for the time being the fact that the school in question is one of the oldest institutions in the state and its heritage value. Just imagine the shock and trauma associated with it when the students saw their classrooms being dismantled as they came to school Monday morning. It indeed was a cruel act and the scene will forever be imprinted in their minds. Every child would be asking why are they pulling down a school which was a temple of learning to them. The school is full of memories of people who had studied there and went on to achieve success in various fields. And the reason for dismantling the school is for constructing a multi-purpose community hall costing about rupees 60 lakhs. Community halls are cropping up in every locality with the introduction of MLA Local Area Development Fund. It has its social uses. But, it certainly should not be at the cost of a school. The cause of education should not be drowned out for the cause of contract works. So, the contractor responsible for dismantling the Kakhulong school should be booked and brought to justice in the interests of education.
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