Friday, November 15, 2024
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Gluttons of privilege in our midst

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Will this education scam be the Kolaveri -Di  moment for Meghalaya?
By Patricia Mukhim

Young people studying or working outside Meghalaya have expressed shock and disgust at what’s happening in our State. The latest one where the list of appointees in Government schools has been tampered elicited an, “OMG! How can such things happen? Imagine a minister using correcting fluid to overwrite on a list prepared by a duly selected board of examiners/interviewers? This is really an over the top scam!” Others in the marketplace feel that the then Education Minister should resign and own up to the rip-off. Still others are sanguine about this whole nepotistic drama. Their take is – “Like everything else that happens in Meghalaya, this too shall pass and we shall all collectively forget about it. Why, we will even elect the same people. So all this hue and cry is really no big deal! It’s just an occasional circus.”

Now about this latest misadventure in the Education Department, I cannot fathom why a bright spark of a politician with a long innings ahead of her would sabotage her own career? Why stoop to such a low as deprive the meritorious candidates who would eventually become teachers at the elementary school level and push in a set of incompetent individuals who had to use political clout to get selected? Does she not know that elementary school teachers actually decide the future of a child? So why did she try to appease the politicians who have shamelessly used undue influence to push in someone at the cost of other meritorious candidate? What I find galling is the sheer audacity of these MLAs/ministers to defend their actions. Canvassing in any form for a government job should disqualify a candidate. The reason why job seekers are outraged is because they know merit does not pay. Everything in this State is a diabolical underhand deal!

There are several issues here that need unbundling. Firstly the Court has directed that a High Level Scrutiny Committee (HLSC) comprising officials of the Education Department should enquire into the case. Is this just and fair? This argument was pushed across by the Government lawyer. Why did the battery of lawyers for the litigants not plead otherwise? Could the minister have got away with what she did without the collusion of her departmental staff? If so, how can the same Department enquire into its own wrongdoings? Would the HLSC have the guts to recommend a fresh examination and declare the last one null and void since the list of appointees has been tampered beyond recognition? To achieve this you would need an independent enquiry that could best be conducted by an independent body. We need to restore credibility to the system.

What’s interesting is the conspiracy of silence from the UDP. They have not said a word to condemn the outrage committed by a Congress minister in the present MUA government. But how can they indict the Congress when their own men are also involved? We have here a classic case of ‘honour among thieves.’ What a fabulous arrangement! The only parties that can take the moral high ground today are the newly launched NPP, the HSPDP and the Independents. This is a good election talking point for them. Corruption has always been a spicy agenda when all else fails.

The third point is about Chief Minister, Dr Mukul Sangma’s stance vis-à-vis the CBI report. The CM has threatened to find out who leaked the CBI report. Now have a heart! Where would we in the media be if some kind soul does not leak a report or two? We would just be stenographers reporting Dr Sangma’s famous discourses on a range of issues at sundry functions. In fact in these two years if the CM were to meticulously collect all his speeches that we in the media have faithfully reproduced he could get a good volume of memorable political lectures for posterity. The issue here is not the CBI report but the explosive contents in the report. How and why they were leaked is immaterial. In a democracy leaks are inevitable. There are too many loose ends. But the fact remains that a crime is committed and that the guilty need to be booked no matter who they are. It’s as simple as that! It does not behove the CM to breathe fire at the CBI and to engage a private detective to go after them. It’s just not done!

We now hear rumours that the 47 aggrieved candidate who went to court against the Education Department are allegedly willing to withdraw the case and that the Government might now accommodate them in different schools. Is this a correct legal route? Should the 47 litigants then not be booked for filing a frivolous case? Should they not be heavily fined for wasting the time of the Court and the CBI? Mark my words, but the government will move high heavens to put a lid on this case. But for the sake of justice and fair play I hope there is enough public pressure so that Dr Mukul Sangma takes the ethical route and does not compromise principles at the altar of political expediency.

US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinions but not his own facts.” There can be hundreds of opinions about what happened but the facts in the education scandal are crystal clear. The then Director, Elementary & Mass Education, JD Sangma, has turned approver and spilt the beans. He has confessed to the CBI during interrogation that the changes in the score sheet were made at the behest of the Education Minister. It is only Ms Ampareen Lyngdoh who has not denied this allegation. Granted that she tried to accommodate the recommendations of all the ministers and MLAs and that the appointees were not only her candidates. But why did she succumb to pressure? After all these are teachers we are talking about and the future of thousands of students over several years that is hanging in the balance!

I think it would be proper to suggest that all recruitment tests in all other departments be conducted along the lines of the Police recruitment test where the scores of each candidate are put up on the department website immediately upon completion of the tests, written or otherwise. For the first time, this year there was no manipulation in the police recruitment test. And Dr Mukul Sangma should be commended for allowing a free hand to the police to do this!

Now police are trying to recruit another 1400 constables of the armed branch for the battalions and MPRO. Till date more than a lakh application forms have been sold @ Rs 50 each. Police officials attribute such a high number of applicants to the recruitment process which is 100 % transparent. This has instilled a sense of hope and optimism among the applicants from across the State. The Police Department is earning at least Rs 50 lakhs from selling application forms. The money is put to good use for hiring technology for a transparent recruitment process. The 10 km run which is for testing physical endurance is recorded by the computer through a chip tagged to the runners’ feet. Earlier the written exam was through dictation. Now the candidates have the benefit of multiple choice questions through optical magnetic reader sheets (OMRS), thereby ruling out any human intervention. The questions are computer generated and computer corrected. Out of 450 marks, 200 marks are for physical test, 200 for written test and 50 for personality test. The five member board allots marks out of 10 each so subjectivity is minimised. Word has got around that this method works and the meritorious are selected. Can the MPSC follow this method for all its recruitment tests? And will other departments follow suit?

The youth are angry. The Government must not frustrate them further by indulging in nepotism for that would drive them to take up arms against the state. A youthful chief minister should understand this better than others.

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