Editor,
I would like to draw your attention to the timings of several schools in Shillong. Many classes begin at 8 am, which puts a large number of students in great hardship. To reach the school at 7.45 am, students have to get up very early in the morning and have to start from home by 7 o’clock or earlier. They can neither get adequate sleep, nor can they have a proper breakfast.
The problem is especially acute for small children in the age group of 5 – 12 years who optimally need 10 – 11 hours of sleep everyday, according to many medical studies. With this monstrous timing, they suffer from sleep deficit which results in diminished abilities to perform. Besides, children in this age group need much more help at home with their lessons. If both parents are working, the children are deprived of their help and guidance as children tend to fall off to sleep early.
I request the concerned authorities to take this matter seriously and to revise the timings to a more child-friendly one since it has far reaching consequences on the health and education of our children. I suggest the 8 o’clock timing, if it cannot be done away with, should be for higher age groups. Please take into confidence all the heads of the concerned schools and the parents.
Yours etc.,
P. Lyngdoh
Shillong – 5
Business in the name of education
Editor,
Kudos to Ruben Lyngdoh for the letter, ‘Minority Institutions’ (ST Feb 23, 2012). But I will add something more to it. It’s not only the minority institutions but almost all private institutions in the State which are doing brisk business in the name of education, with the government being a mere spectator. Shillong always had the reputation of being the educational hub of North East and this is what is being exploited by almost all the institutions of the city. The fees charged are exorbitant which makes no sense as the institutions do not use such fees for any infrastructural purpose leave aside paying better salaries to the teachers. Today the condition of many teachers working in private capacity in the colleges is pathetic. Its well known that the morale of teachers have to be high for them to give their best to the students, but imagine a scenario where a teacher is paid four to five thousand a month and has a family to run in today’s world. It is just not possible. The institutions can very well afford to pay them decently but will not as their motive is money making or profit. It’s a very sad scenario and if nothing is done then I am sorry to say that the educational standards of the city will come down further. Yes the civil society should play an important role in the financial transactions of these institutions, but my question is what is NEHU and its community doing. Why can’t NEHU check what is going in these institutions? NEHU is responsible for granting them affiliations but does its role end with merely granting affiliations? Can’t it keep a tight check on what is going on in these institutions? Institutions, mainly the private ones in the city should not be allowed to run business in the name of Education. If the civil society does not rise to this occasion the teachers in such institutions will always be exploited in the name of serving the society.
Yours etc.,
Marcus Laitphlang,
Via email
Politicians never retire
Editor,
Apropos the editorial “An aging Congress” (ST 21 Feb 2012) politicians are politicians and they will never surrender in grace. Political parties do not learn this fundamental principle because political parties are not politicians. “WE THE PEOPLE” are supreme in a democracy. It is too early to say that there is a perceptible difference between the performance of the younger brigade in the present cabinet of Meghalaya. It is a fact that legislators require quick thinking and a lot of sweating but it has also to be ascertained, what is the thinking and sweating all about. Thinking and sweating alone will not suffice. Action is the need of the hour. Political party camp followers do not have the courage to tell the elders that it is time to retire and that too to retire gracefully without a fight. Take the case of the sitting legislator, the father of West Khasi Hills politics, Ma Hoping Stone Lyngdoh who in 1972 secured 2890 votes as an independent candidate from 33 Pariong constituency and peaked it in 2008 by securing 10537 votes from 34 Nongstoin constituency as an HSPDP candidate. I have reliable information after extensively touring West Khasi Hills that he will romp home gracefully and cross the 10537 mark in 2013. The editorial may be right to propagate the idea of graceful retirement of geriatrics. But let me tell you when (Lt) Brington Buhai Lyngdoh , the first Finance Minister and later Chief Minister of Meghalaya was asked by a scribe “Sir, when will you retire? He immediately replied “Politicians never retire but they just fade away”.
Yours etc..
Bajop Pyngrope
Camp Rambrai
West Khasi Hills.