The college teachers of Meghalaya have been on strike for over a month. A stand-off between the Government and the Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA) is not doing anyone any good. In this tug of war the students are unwitting victims. Educational institutions are fast approaching their end of term and students will have to be writing their exams for promotion to the next grade or for their selection tests leading to the final examinations in February-March. What is surprising is that the managers of educational institutions have remained passive spectators, if not outrightly partisan. Some heads of institutions, have, in fact, come across as weak and vacillating, almost in fear of the teachers who appear to be controlling the proceedings. How did things come to this sad pass? How did the management of educational institutions slip from the hands of the governing bodies into the manipulative hands of the teachers’ associations? Over the years the quality of college and university education in Meghalaya has seen a downward trend. Teaching is no longer a creative or participative activity but a humdrum exercise where teachers seem more concerned about their pay packets and students only want to get out with good marks. The real purpose of education is defeated. There are no teachers in the campuses beyond certain hours to mentor students who might need special attention. Any wonder why so many students suffer depression and even commit suicide? Students are expected to be noisy and vibrant and to be quick on their feet to volunteer information when called to. Nothing of the sort is visible today.
On one occasion an expert trainer in social science who visited a certain college asked the students to volunteer to undertake an extraordinary exercise of finding out how many words there are in the different languages/dialects of the region to name “shit.” He said the word is not a slang as it has been used in the UK Parliament on several occasions. Not a single hand went up. There was dead-pan silence in the room. Anywhere else if such an exercise had been carried out, students would have jumped to their feet to volunteer information. It is meant to be fun activity. And that’s precisely what’s wrong with our education system. It’s become too sombre, too devoid of fun and too conventional and predictable. It takes away the joy of learning. If teachers at the college level lack the basic quality of making learning a meaningful adventure then do they have the right to claim higher salaries? Should not salaries be linked to performance? Unfortunately today we no longer have principals with sterling leadership qualities. They are, instead led by teachers! What a fall from grace!