By Albert Thyrniang
Garo Hills is undersigned. A sense of insecurity prevails. Fear is deeply felt and is visible in faces of people. Economic and social activities end well before sunset. The media have reported militant groups’ extortion drives all over Garo Hills coupled with the increase in the spurt of violence. Businessmen, contractors, government officers, politicians, doctors, NREGS supervisors and even daily wage owners are served with demand notes. Fake groups and anti-social elements make use of mobile phones to great effect. For fear no one can be taken lightly. Those who can afford negotiate and comply. Others borrow to escape being ‘punished’.
Militant outfits are mushrooming. From a parent organization, at least three others are born. You can be sure that some more splinter groups will emerge. As concerned citizens we should ask, “Who are in these groups? Who join these groups? Why do they join these groups? What is/are the reasons for joining them? Without the backing of any scientific study it is safe to say that these extremist outfits consist mostly of school/college drop-outs, unskilled and unemployed youngsters.
According to official statistics furnished by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) the school dropout rate in Meghalaya at the primary level stood at 58.87 percent in 2012. A glance at the SSLC and HSSLC examination 2013 will reveal that there are a lot of drop-outs around. In the SSLC, out of the 41,007 who appeared only 23,093 passed (56.31%). 17,914 failed. In the HSSLC 20,616 appeared and only 11,791 were successful (57.19%). Combined we have 29,705 failures.
As in other years, Garo Hills fared poorly in the recently declared MBOSE results. In both HSSLC and SSLC North Garo Hills District recorded the highest pass percentage of just over 40%. In HSSLC the lowest pass percentage is in South West Garo Hills with 31.41%, while in SSLC South Garo Hills has the non-envious lowest percentage of just 28.90%. This means over 60%-70% failed in Garo Hills. In Khasi-Jaintia Hills, except East Jaintia Hills (52.19%), the pass percentage in all other districts is over 60%. While others passed in first division others either failed got through in the third division.
Another point one comes across while going through the result book is that the number of students appearing from Government and deficit (non-missionary run) schools as regular candidates is very small. Having received an ultimatum from the government to either improve or run the risk of grants being withdrawn many of these schools send up just a few students to appear in SSLC examinations. In the last examination there were quite a few schools with just 10-15 candidates. 80-90 percent were detained at ‘selection examination’. This is done to improve the pass percentage. It would be interesting to check the enrolment of these schools in Class IX and X. It could be revealing! The purpose of this analysis is to stress the point that we have a lot of school drop-outs in the state, particularly Garo Hills.
As part of a panel interviewing aspirants into class XI, I am convinced that our education system produces unskilled individuals. All the 200 odd candidates who came for the interview brought their SSLC certificates backed up by mark sheets. They had passed in English, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Heath Education, etc., but they do not understand simple questions like, “Where do you live?”, “Are your parents alive?”, “What is H2O?”, “What is the capital of Meghalaya?”, “Name one respiratory organ,” etc., Many couldn’t spell the words ‘mother’ and ‘father’. Quality is unimaginably poor! In such cases, one can’t help but say, “Certificates are of little use.”
Three basic skills students must learn – speaking, reading and writing. Unless students learn these skills sufficiently (if not master them) certificates have no value. Today employers look for skills not merely certificates. Gone are the days when certificates would fetch you a job. Today they don’t. Matriculates, HSSLC passed, graduates and even post graduates who don’t pick up these skills are unlikely to get a job. It is feared that the present education system produces individuals with certificates and not persons with skills. It produces certificate holders who are unemployable. The reason for un-employability and unemployment is poor quality education.
Poor quality education leads to thousands of drop-outs, failures, unskilled and unemployed youth in Garo Hills. Where do these youngsters go? What do they do? Could they be a fertile soil for militant outfits? Could they be ready made materials for ‘the Robin Hoods’? Could they land up in underground training camps? Could they be soft targets of different militant groups? Could they be the ones who are recruited by these rebel groups? Could they be the ones wearing camouflage? Could they be the ones with sophisticated and automatic machine guns? Could they be the ones who take on the state? Could they be the ones who resort to extortion, kidnap and killing?
We can blame our flawed and outdated education policy which produces unskilled individuals which in turn leads to unemployment, poverty and in our case militancy. To fix the problem it takes time. In the meantime what do we do? Do we not want peace, prosperity and progress? Do we not want security and safety? Do we not want the rule of law to prevail? Do we want the situation to deteriorate? Do we want to see Garo Hills going from bad to worse? Then why the deafening silence? The depressing situation demands a response from leaders from different walks of life. Unfortunately, as of now we seem to have none! Government leadership included!