It is a truism today in Manipur government schools do not perform. It is also a fact to which even the government seems to have surrendered. None in the government anymore thinks this is anything to be ashamed of. Dismal showings after dismal showings at the Class X annual public examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education Manipur, BSEM, by government schools, many of them showing zero pass percentage, have not been able to stir the government’s conscience enough to spur it into any proactive recourse. All that happens is a whole lot of platitudes flying around from those who should have died of shame or at least have resigned for failing in their responsibility, on why quality school education is a must for the society to progress. Many of them have ready excuses for this failure. If these excuses were for once or twice, they may have been tolerable, but when it becomes an endemic official attitude for decades together, the insensitivity can only be described as criminal. It is also quite a telling irony that government teachers and staff are paid several times more than their private school counterparts, and yet it is the latter who put them to shame every year.
The time worn and lame justification for this every time is that students in these schools belong to the poorer sections of the society with little parental tutoring of mentoring, hence they cannot be expected to perform as well as their richer peers. This is probably true to a great extent. Children of richer parents afford not just the best private schools but also private tuitions. Affluent parents are also more aware of the value of education and do much more to have their children receive the best and most suitable education. All these are out of reach of children of poor families. But even if this were to be so, the question never asked is, if the reason for the failure is known, why is the government not thinking of remedial actions? Since the disease is diagnosed, the prescriptive measures should have been the next logical step, and this is precisely where the bigger failure is. Surely the government is not waiting for the poorer sections of the society to get richer so that their children can have better education! But in this absurd theatre called Manipur, anything is possible. The point is, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure the gaps are filled. The school curricula, school timings, teaching methods etc should be structured so that the problem is minimised to the level possible. And if nutrition is the issue, this has already been partly addressed by such Central government schemes as the school midday meals, integrated child development scheme, etc. What the state needs is, apart from a committed government, it is also a government with the capacity to envision imaginative solutions to problems. Teachers cannot be exonerated but blaming them alone would be unfair. This governmental commitment and imagination are unfortunately where the darkest shadows have been falling.
Another way to ensure a morale uplift of government schools is to make it mandatory for ministers and officials to have their children study in them. This would not only be a morale booster for the schools, but also guarantee the personal involvement of these men in position of power in nurturing the schools back to health. Unfortunately again, this place has never been blessed with a leadership of such mettle or conviction. We can stick our neck out and say that the children of most of these men not only do not study in government schools, but are away from the state as well. This would almost amount to the government saying government schools are good for everybody else but not for those in the government. One is reminded of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, in which the leaders of the farm indoctrinate the other animals with the unceasing chant, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal”. We are only suggesting that if there is a problem, it has to be believed that there must also be a solution waiting to be found. If this belief is not there, it is a resignation, and this is our accusation at the government. Or maybe the accusation should be harsher. Maybe is it a case of total insensitivity and an abject lack of interest in working out a solution. Our hunch then is, government schools in Manipur would continue to languish indefinitely.