Starting off on the wrong foot Fate of hostellers

Starting off on the wrong foot. And this does not paint Dhanamanjuri College in any good light. Classes started on January 27, and it is difficult to digest that the college authority has not been able to work out something as basic as fixing the fee structure for the hostellers and fixing a date for re-opening the hostel. Something, somewhere is terribly wrong and the Government should take note of this. How can classes re-open when something as basic as the fee structure of the hostellers and fixing the date for re-opening the hostel have not been worked out ? What were the hostel authority doing all these days ? The notification that Classes would re-open from January 27 was issued days ahead of the date of re-opening and surely something could have been worked out. And why are hostels being opened ? This is a question that should bother those who are responsible for running and managing hostels. Not all the students at DM College would be drawn from Imphal. This is a given and outstation students will surely need to stay somewhere to attend classes. Those who have got admission in the hostel cannot be expected to stay anywhere once classes re-open and this is a point which seems to have blown over the head of those responsible for looking after the hostel. A sure indication that education of the young students does not figure in the priority list of the people who matter and this is what is hard to digest. To the suited, booted folks who are responsible for running the administration of the college and the hostel, the failure to re-open the college hostel will not affect them as their children and wards must be studying outside the State but how about those who have to study here ? Let the Education Minister address this issue at the soonest and surely the position of the Government needs to be spelt out to the people.
Education Minister S Rajen has of late been inspecting a number of educational institutions following the decision to re-open schools and colleges from January 27 and surely the point that the hostel of DM Colleges of Arts is yet to re-open should be in his knowledge. This is where it becomes important to question whether the inspection drives and visits by the Education Minister has had the desired impact or not. Surely hostel is very much a part of any educational institution and this should not be lost on anyone. How about other colleges and schools which have hostel facilities ? Have they all opened in line with the decision to re-open educational institutions from January 27 or is this something which has been left to the wisdom of the institution concerned ? If this is what can happen at DM College, one shudders to even think how it must be like in other institutions. True the decision to open classes is only from Class IX and above, but it would do good for the Government not to forget the Babysana death case of 2019 and the need then sounded to monitor how the different hostels are being run and managed in Imphal and elsewhere. With classes gradually being re-opened it would do good to re-visit the suggestions floated  by different stakeholders back then. Lest anyone forgets, school and college hostels are the second home for numerous students and the Government should take note of this bare fact.