Editor,
In the last few years students who pass their HSSLC Science examinations conducted by MBOSE are not rewarded for their hard work and lose out on the Meghalaya state quota seats. This is because students from other boards who apply through the quota get higher marks than the MBOSE students.
Earlier when students from other Boards apply for seats through their marks are reduced by 10% so that the MBOSE students are safeguarded. Due to a court case, the government cannot do the same anymore. And the trend in the recent years has been a major setback to MBOSE students. A good majority of the Meghalaya State quota seats are given to students from other boards.
We know that CBSE is recognized all over India. It is the national board of the country. But it isn’t fair to compare their marks with the MBOSE students. There are many reasons why the CBSE students get better marks. Even though the syllabus is the same as MBOSE, but they have better books. MBOSE books are not as good as the NCERT textbooks. Moreover these other students have more time to prepare. MBOSE on the other hand gives lesser gaps between subjects. For example, this year MBOSE students got only two days to prepare for the major subjects (Physics, Chemistry and Biology). However, the time to prepare for Mathematics was too much. There should have been a few days more for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. That way, the students would have got a few more marks. Every mark is very crucial as it decides their future, especially when they apply for Medical seats from the State quota. Another reason is the pattern of questions set. The pattern in which questions are set help the CBSE students to score more marks.
Yes, the CBSE students deserve the marks they get because they worked hard for it. But even the MBOSE students work equally hard but could not get higher marks. It is not fair to compare the marks which students get in the examinations conducted by different boards. There is no proper platform for comparison.
It’s sadder to see students from the Tamil Nadu and other state boards outside Meghalaya do better than the MBOSE students. They were mediocre students in class X when they studied in Meghalaya but got really high marks in class XII when they studied outside the State. Maybe because the course is easier or there is not much to study in their syllabus or some other reason.
Through your esteemed newspaper we hope that the government does something about this. The Directorate of Health Services has already postponed the last date of application from the 15th of May to the 11th of June in view of “public service.” It may be mentioned that MBOSE declared the results very early (26th April). Had the last date of application not been postponed, MBOSE students would have still been safeguarded.
We as students of the State Board really hope that the government does something about this grave anomaly. Our future is on the line. A good majority of the MBOSE students are from poor financial background. State quota is the only way they can pursue their future studies in professional lines like MBBS. MBOSE is the board of the State of Meghalaya. It should be given top priority. Otherwise, there is no point for MBOSE to conduct the HSSLC examinations. Alternatively the State should switch over to CBSE.
We really hope this batch would be treated fairly. There is still a lot of time for the Government to find put ways and means to be equitable in allotting seats to the students of its own Board. onwards.
Yours etc,
Students of MBOSE
(Names withheld on request)
MeECL needs good management practices
Editor,
Apropos your report on the resistance of the villagers to the Umngot Power Project(21st May 2012), while the opponents have their own reasons for doing so my contention however is, whether it is necessary to take up this project close on the heel of the commissioning of the Leshka Hydro Electricity Power project which was completed at a highly inflated cost. One would hope that with an additional 42 MW of power supply from the Leshka project at its disposal, the MeECL would have been able to provide uninterrupted power supply to its consumers without any load shedding, but that is not happening yet. We still experience frequent power cuts, frequent breakdown and black outs which really frustrate the public at large. So why do we need a new project if it is just to construct dams and to incur huge investments in machinery and equipments without any expected tangible benefits to the people. What the MeECL first needs is to adopt good management practices before it jumps into another venture. There are enough strewn wires hanging around and posing grave dangers to people and which have even claimed precious lives, frequent power breakdowns at the slightest winds, rotten poles and collapse of transformers, failure to provide service for days in many villages, lack of anticipation of probable incidents and what not. You name it, MeECL has it. In fact, down the years the Corporation always been in the news for the wrong reasons! So, obviously there must be lack of dynamism, commitment, aggressiveness and initiatives at the top echelon of the Corporation to set things right . Strangely, the Government also allows such laxity in the Corporation to continue just because it suits the interests of a few while the public continue to suffer. If the Government seriously wants to improve the power scenario in the state then a change of guard in the Corporation is inevitable immediately. Surely there must be other competent people around.
Yours etc.,
K Syiem,
Via email