What exactly ails the education system in Manipur? Is it the failure of the authority concerned to stick to the academic calendar year after year or is it the deep rooted corruption that has got a vice like grip on the Education Department and even Manipur University or has it got something to do with the massive culture of unfair means used by students and encouraged by invigilators, teachers and even family elders during exam time?
We know it would be an impossible task to single out any one of these factors but yes there is a common thread that runs through all these different factors and the sum total of these factors, is the education system that we see today in Manipur. In fact so rotten has the education become, that we have one of the underground organisations, the KYKL to be precise, which have taken it upon themselves to cleanse the examination system under the operation code named Operation New Kangleipak.
Whether one agrees with the method employed by the KYKL or not is a different matter but what cannot be dismissed so easily is the fact that the campaign launched by the outfit is a reflection of the depth to which education has sunk over the years. It is not only the KYKL which has taken it upon themselves to usher in quality education but a myriad of other social organisations not to speak of the student bodies. In Churachandpur there is the Citizen's Initiative for Clean Examination (CICE), Churachandpur which is aiming to cleanse the rot that is associated with all public examinations held in the State.
All these efforts to stem the rot and clean the system is indeed welcome and we certainly hope the efforts do not die premature deaths and even as the efforts are on to bring in quality education, it would be in the fitness of things if the common man on the street, the father and mother and yes the teachers and students too start searching their souls and see if they have not contributed in any way to the current sorry state of education in Manipur.
So very often we see that students are forced into using unfair means during examination because the teachers have not been able to cover the syllabus. This fact is borne by the fact that at most times; students found copying inside the examination halls are mostly from Government schools and not from the private institutions, where teachers are expected to earn their pay. We may also ask why educational institutions, particularly those run and managed by the Government have not been able to stick to the academic calendar.
The answer we think lies chiefly on the number of strikes, cease work strike and class boycott launched and organized by both the students and the teachers alike. It is here we need to study how and when the culture of calling a strike or boycotting classes for any grievances started catching the imagination of the common population of Manipur.
Add to the agitations launched by the teachers and students, the numerous bandhs and blockades called by sundry organisations in the name of public interest and we have the right ingredients for throwing the academic calendar into disarray. As things stand today, the ban on fresh recruitment has had an adverse effect on the Education Department with at least 4000 posts of teachers lying vacant. The scenario is indeed bleak and hopefully things should not become worse than this.
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