Understanding performance of Govt schools Why point only at teachers ?

It is that time of the year and once again people’s attention are on the schools which have specialised at the plus two level, with the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur (COHSEM) having declared the Class XII examination results on May 8 and the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BOSEM) set to declare the Class X examination results on May 18. Other than the schools specialising at the plus two level are the numerous coaching centres, offering courses in NEET, JEE and other competitive examinations which can be taken after Class XII. Imphal is certainly not Kota, but the growth of the numerous coaching centres is an indication that students, parents and guardians of the young students are leaving nothing to chance to crack some of the highly competitive examinations, which can script the future of the young students. A look at the advertisements put up in all the leading daily newspapers published at Imphal will stand testimony to this. It is also that time of the year when the performance of Government schools are discussed with many pointing out the dismal performances of such schools with the Government having to deal with the uncomfortable question of why these schools continue to put up such shoddy performances year after year without fail. As Education Minister Th Radheshyam pointed  out, Government schools have seen an improvement this year, having registered a pass percentage of 62 percent from the previous year’s record of 51 percent, but this still falls short of the overall 73.83 pass percentage in the Class XII examination this year.
That the Government is still groping in the dark on how to improve the performance of Government schools can be gauged from the utterance of the Education Minister that a policy may be put in place which mandates that Government teachers should enrol their children in Government schools. This is to ensure that they dispense with their duty more effectively, is the line of reasoning spelt out by the Education Minister. Tough to say how far such a policy will go in improving the Government schools, but all Ministers should be ready to answer if a counter poser is hurled at them on why only Government teachers should be made to enrol their children in Government schools ? How about the policy framers, particularly Ministers and officials who are in charge of Education ? Such a line of thinking will not fall in line with the efforts taken up to improve the performance of Government schools.  On the other hand, once the Class X result is announced, one can expect the numerous schools, particularly in Imphal offering freebies to the top notch students. As pointed out here many times, while this is certainly welcome, it would do good for all to give some thoughts to the students who could not make it to the list of the first 20 toppers, but who did reasonably well. Education should be such that sincere efforts of the young students are appreciated. A student who could not make it to the list of top 20 but scores a decent 70 percent does not necessarily mean that she is less competent than the students in the top 20 spot.