Probe allegations raised by DESAM Time to crack the whip
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The State Government should take note of it and pronto. An allegation, this is, but it is serious enough to warrant a sincere probe and see how things could have come to such a pass. It is sad and unfortunate but yet at the same time it is also very disturbing that such a serious allegation has come about. The contention raised by the Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur is simple enough-at least 18 students of the 7th Semester of Manipuri Department had to leave their answer paper blank, for the questions that were asked came from a totally different Semester in the Manipuri paper. Sounds like a case of Class V students being taught from books or subjects meant for a different class and this is a serious matter. How did such a goof up occur ? 7th Semester students, meaning the students are already in their third year, and to think that all this while they have been taught topics meant for a different Semester and things cannot get more farcical and worse than this. Appearing for the exam and came to the realisation that all this while they were taught topics meant for a different Semester and this is clearly not just an error. In other words, in all the months preceding the examination, the students were taught something from a different Semester and this is simply not acceptable. An error that stretched on for days or weeks or months. What is happening ? The Government better study the allegations raised by the student body seriously or else it would amount to dodging the responsibility of imparting education to the youngsters. For the moment, it is DESAM which has come to the forefront to bring the matter to the notice of the public and the uncomfortable thought is the possibility of other such cases, which may have gone undetected. Or if the allegation raised is wrong, then the Government or the authority concerned should say so and set the record straight. Nothing seems to have been learnt from the reality that is Manipur today. Obvious that no serious thought has been given to the question on why it has become a compulsion for hundreds and hundreds of parents and guardians to send their children outside Manipur for their higher studies once they cross the Class XII stage. A point which The Sangai Express has been raising in this column for years, but there is nothing to show that some serious thoughts have been given to the exercise that passes off as education here. Manipur certainly cannot afford to continue like this. The time for the Government to crack the whip has long been felt and perhaps now is the time to probe the allegation raised by DESAM and fix responsibility. Enough of toying with the future of the young students.
Something, somewhere is terribly wrong and some of the ugly incidents that were witnessed in the just concluded Class X and Class XII examinations cannot and should not be seen in isolation of the overall climate that comes along with the exami- nations conducted in Manipur. There obviously is no magic formula to cleanse the system that is associated with education here, but a beginning somewhere has to be made and the first step perhaps would be to start with raising certain pertinent questions. Those who have been in the profession of disseminating information to the public everyday would still remember how it took an outlawed organisation to come up with a special drive to cleanse the rot that came along whenever the Class X and Class XII examinations were conducted. It was during the early phase of the said operation that the pass percentage in the Class X examinations dropped drastically low, which said something profound about how the use of unfair means in the examination was taken as something acceptable. This was about 20 years back and things did take a turn for the better, as helpers and runners usually seen hovering around all the major examination centres disappeared. However as things have turned out, cheats have managed to find ways to outwit the anti-cheating measures as exemplified by the recent Class X and Class XII examinations. Time for the students or candidates themselves, the parents and guardians and the Government to note that the responsibility is on all to make all the examinations clean and above board.
Something, somewhere is terribly wrong and some of the ugly incidents that were witnessed in the just concluded Class X and Class XII examinations cannot and should not be seen in isolation of the overall climate that comes along with the exami- nations conducted in Manipur. There obviously is no magic formula to cleanse the system that is associated with education here, but a beginning somewhere has to be made and the first step perhaps would be to start with raising certain pertinent questions. Those who have been in the profession of disseminating information to the public everyday would still remember how it took an outlawed organisation to come up with a special drive to cleanse the rot that came along whenever the Class X and Class XII examinations were conducted. It was during the early phase of the said operation that the pass percentage in the Class X examinations dropped drastically low, which said something profound about how the use of unfair means in the examination was taken as something acceptable. This was about 20 years back and things did take a turn for the better, as helpers and runners usually seen hovering around all the major examination centres disappeared. However as things have turned out, cheats have managed to find ways to outwit the anti-cheating measures as exemplified by the recent Class X and Class XII examinations. Time for the students or candidates themselves, the parents and guardians and the Government to note that the responsibility is on all to make all the examinations clean and above board.