Shiver! But study they must!
Winter is not the best time to burn the midnight oil because it actually freezes at midnight. This year night temperatures dipped so low that getting out of the bed to visit the loo was a gigantic effort, some students confessed. Yet night-owls preparing for their final examinations have no choice. When children keep awake until the wee hours can parents have a sound sleep? Most parents are bitter about the examination schedules here. They feel that all Board and University final exams should be over by late November or early December before the cold really hits those who have to study and others who have to keep watch along with them. This has been a much debated subject for decades. There was a proposal once from the Catholic Board of Education that the MBOSE conducted SSLC exams and University final exams should be completed before the winter vacations. But evidently the teachers’ lobby is so strong that the proposal was shot down. And guess why teachers don’t want exams to be over and done with by December? Because the results would have to be out by March-April! This means that teachers would have to correct answer scripts during the winter vacations! They want to do it at leisure from March to May-June. Parents wonder whether education is all about the teacher and very little about the learner. A good question indeed! Education in Meghalaya, including scams have always had to do with teachers. Students are at the receiving end always!
Code of misconduct
A former politician known for his sharp wit and humour sent this message around. “Now that the Code of Conduct for politicians has been announced and strictly implemented, is the Code of Misconduct now placed under temporary suspension?” It would seem so from the instant seizure of materials, including blankets, by the District Administration from the Shillong South NCP candidate, Sanbor Shullai. And wonder of wonders is that a local collage meant to teach students about ethics, played host to this illegal exercise! Shullai claims he was not officially informed that the code of conduct had come into effect. He is probably too busy campaigning and had missed the news on television, Friday evening, announcing the dates of the election in Meghalaya and the simultaneous suspension of any code of misconduct. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, so say legal experts. “Quipped a political watchdog, “Ignorance of the law by a law maker makes it even more bizarre. How do we expect the common man to observe the rule of law then? Don’t tell me the guy spent five years as a legislator and does not know that when election dates are announced the model code of conduct which prevents contesting politicians from distributing freebies to woo voters, also comes into effect? And we the voters are equally weird for electing such ignoramuses!”
Festival on Cultures of Peace
On Jan 18-19, a group called ‘KHUBLEI’ is organising a literary festival of sorts called Cultures of Peace, the Festival of the North East, at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Writers and poets from India’s North East will be part of this pow-wow where Daisy Hasan’s book, ‘Lunatic in my Head,’ will be discussed among a group of panellists. The tribal non-tribal divide in Meghalaya beginning from 1979 and carrying on in subtle but perceptible ways in the present context will be the theme of the discussion. The Festival which has been put up on Facebook already has many people ‘liking’ it and many recording their attendance. KHUBLEI is headed by Mary Therese Kurkalang a young lady from Shillong and currently based in Delhi. These young, vibrant ambassadors of the North East can do much more to interpret this region to the rest of India than our Members of Parliament can ever do in their five year tenure. Indeed, if Delhi and other Indians don’t know and remembers us it is because there is not a single MP from here who moves and shakes Parliament when it is in session. We need to groom more ambassadors of peace and culture from this State and Region.
