Shed a tear for Education
For the last few months the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur has been in the limelight for all the wrong and unsavory reasons. First there was the cry and demand from the AISF for the removal of the then Secretary on charges of manipulating the marks of his daughter and other irregularities. Even MPP leader and Opposition stalwart O Joy jumped into the fray and brought the matter on the floor of the House when the SPF Government came to power.
Then the mother of all bombshells was dropped when the proscribed KYKL took the newly appointed Secretary of the Council into custody on charges of bribing his way to the post and punished him with two bullet shots each on the knee caps. The official was even paraded before media persons where he gave his testimonials. According to the underground outfit, the Secretary, Dr Joychandra had greased the palms of the Education Minister Maniruddin Sheikh and MLA TN Haokip on his way to the post. A middle-man was also named by the outfit. Even as the series of developments left the people shell shocked, the customary clarifications started coming from the persons named by the outfit.
A day after his return from Delhi, TN Haokip invited the press on June 3 to set the ‘record straight’. Haokip said the process of appointing the new Secretary was initiated during the regime of the previous Government but did not spell out whether he meant the previous popular Government or the PR stint. The Speaker even mentioned that he personally does not know the Secretary in question but admitted that he had signed a DO letter asking that the file be put up to the Chief Minister upon the request of a party worker.
Education Minister Dr Maniruddin Sheikh took everyone by surprise when he announced to the press that he signed the appointment order at the behest of the Chief Minister. As expected he denied taking any money for the appointment. It is another matter that the Education Minister was magnanimous enough to accept that he did not properly go through the files and failed to detect the irregularities in the file process!
The interesting thing is the Chief Minister himself has admitted that certain flaws have been detected and announced that a thorough probe into the affair would be conducted. We certainly welcome the move of the Government to probe the sordid affair and even more welcome the assurances of O Ibobi that guilty officials would not be spared.
However what is deeply disturbing is the point that the sleaze and grime may have gone undetected if the underground organization had not acted. Why did it need an underground organization and too a banned one to pick the loopholes in the functioning of the Government? Would the Government have acted if the KYKL had not pointed out the gross irregularities? As the chief minister himself admitted before the press on June 6, the inquiry will investigate why there were two different files in the both the Education (U) and Education (S) Departments, which file was moved first and why the other file was kept concealed.
Education is not only about teaching the students how to read and write but concerns the development of the student as a human being ranging from molding his character and instilling discipline and making him/her a responsible citizen. If lucre is going to be the deciding factor in making appointment to such an important post as the Secretary of the Council of Higher Secondary Education, then we can only pray and hope that such demented system do not get rubbed onto the young students.
As the first among equals in the Council of Ministers, it would be befitting if the Chief Minister ensures that the inquiry goes to its logical conclusion and nail the guilty. For starters he can shift the Education Minister to another portfolio as his name has been linked to the seam to earn the confidence of the people and also to ring out the message that the Chief Minister will not tolerate any nonsense. Hope this not asking for too much.
(Courtesy: The Sangai Express) |
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