Quality education can happen only through sincere pursuit of knowledge by students and equally sincere commitment to teach the students by teachers. In our states we have instead students who want to be administrators and policy makers, and teachers, a good percentage of whom are in the profession for the love of everything else but teaching. Many of the latter would rather be government contractors by proxy and join the looting of the state exchequer. Added to this are the bureaucrats and ministers in charge of this agenda, whose only interest seems to be showing off the status of their jobs and stiffening their collars in their chauffeured cars `“ never mind their empty bags when it comes to any tangible claim to fame. While nobody can be actually pleased with the manner in which our government has been handling education, nothing very much is there to be said, much less be proud about, the attitude of our teaching as well as students communities. It is no wonder that the best crop of our students every year, whose parents can call up the means, fly outside the state in their thousands even for school education. Happily, at least the school level, the state has caught up, and for triggering off a revolution in this sector, we have catholic mission schools to thank. We are happy for those who have the means to go and pursue studies outside. Many of them will return one day with fresh outlooks, visions and skills, but our concern for those who are less fortunate and have no choice but to remain in the state and sink deeper into the abyss for the lack of quality education, outweighs the earlier consideration. This because we believe the demons from our society can only be exorcised if a more egalitarian society, economically as well as educationally, can be ushered in, and not at all by a further stratification of our society as is bound to happen if the education system, as well as its atmosphere back home, do not improve. We also believe in the emancipating qualities of broad-based knowledge, a commodity which is becoming increasingly scarce and may actually be on the verge of disappearance already. We are staring a catastrophe in the face and we better wake up.
Education is a large issue, and to get a total grasp of it, there is a need to piece together many different visions and observations on it. We acknowledge this needs a much wider debate. Hence, we put ink to paper just one observation, hopefully again, to initiate a debate. It is such a pain to see school children being made to join strikes and rallies, class boycotts and office picketing. They seem so much like cannon fodders used by much more sinister, backstage minds. They may not suffer physical casualties in these protests, (or on the other hand they may), but they will ultimately be long term casualties, for what they are being made to do is to destroy the very same academic atmosphere they have to draw succour from, and what is worse, without their understanding the implication of what they are being made to do. Many years ago, before the current revolution of private schools was in sight, Catholic schools were in the midst of another controversy for not allowing their students to be part of students unions. They were bulldozed into conceding their point. But more than ever now, when education, particularly school education, is left standing on the hot tin roof, we see the wisdom of the nuns and priests. Many of the fiery orators who opposed this wisdom at the time, we are told have either joined politics or are government contractors, doing precisely they compelled school children to protest against. What about the little children with satchels on their backs who could not perform their peaks in the school leaving examinations because of these agitations? Many from that generation probably now see the light as to who were made the scapegoats.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam