By Patricia Mukhim
Meghalaya has interesting visitors. The positive side of being a hack is that one gets to meet all kinds of people. In recent times this writer has had fellow hacks from China, Japan and the US (working with the New York Times)come visiting. Researchers and scholars also constantly knock at our doors. What was interesting was the visit of Dilip Thakore former editor of Business World and now of the Bangalore based Education World and his two colleagues. Education World rates educational institutions in order of their achievements using several indicators. When I met them, the first question they asked me was, “What is the state of education in Meghalaya? Why is it called the educational hub of the North East?” It is easy to answer the first. There has not been much innovation in Meghalaya’s education scene. The curriculum does not meet the needs of students in a very challenging work environment. It does not address their ‘life’ issues. It does not teach them what a country like India needs most which is social bonding and transcending borders of race, religion and ethnicities. The school is the place where we learn to happily co-exist with one another irrespective of overt differences. At least that was what I had learnt in school. It takes a lot to make me a communal bigot today. I can’t do it because it’s not part of my mental DNA.
Alas! Such is no longer the case now. Many schools have become communal ghettoes where students have to look behind them before they say anything, lest they offend some sensibilities. The space to speak out freely and articulate what they feel is largely restricted. Often, students belonging to particular communities are at the receiving end in schools and colleges. Universities are no better. They have become little enclaves of tribalism. One wonders therefore whether students who pass out actually know how to engage with the world outside. Is this the reason why once our students step out of their comfort zones here and enter the big bad world outside they begin to feel victimised? Breaking out of the egg shell to face the real world is a bit of a problem. In our own little ghettoes, though we are bullies.
The second question about Meghalaya being the educational hub, it to my mind and over-rated statement. Where are the professional colleges? Do we have a medical or engineering college? Do we have premier colleges of nursing? Do we have a college of agriculture or veterinary or forestry? Do we have a national class music academy? No one knows what has happened to the Lalit Kala Academy which was supposed to have set up shop here but got bogged down by politics. So, no we have none of the above! And for several decades we never asked for any of them? Thanks to Dr Mukul Sangma the present chief minister, Meghalaya managed to wrangle out of Assam the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Shillong. If Sangma had not dug in his heels and brought the then Human Resources Development Minister, Arjun Singh to Shillong, the IIM too might have been located in Guwahati. So do we qualify to be called an educational hub?
Meghalaya has rested on its laurels of having been the educational centre for students from the entire north eastern region. But that is mainly because of the premier missionary run schools and colleges. Meghalaya has one good public school – the Pine Mount School, where today only those with political clout can gain entry. Hence, if we continue to deceive ourselves that the missionary run schools and colleges are still dishing out innovative, quality education that prepares children for the world of work and for life itself then we live in a world of make believe. This is, in fact, a false premise we are riding on. I may be pardoned for saying this but having been a teacher for a good part of my life, I am aware how ill motivated we teachers are to break out of the mould. We detest change especially if it means spending more time than the scheduled 9am-3pm routine with students. As a result our students have no mentors. Mentoring requires time beyond the normal school hours and this is where residential schools score over day schools. In the former, teachers are around much of the time. Adolescent kids with their raging hormones are in need of constant mentoring. In fact, if you ask me, I think teaching is not required as much as a one-on-one mentoring is. Kids can do interactive learning from several internet sites today. But they can’t find an online mentor who understands them as much as a teacher-mentor who sees them on a daily basis and understands their mental and psychological make-up. A mentor helps change attitudes and behaviour and can bring hope to a learner who does not make the grade because of faulty yardsticks. I wonder if our teachers are aware of the many great men who failed in their schools or colleges because they just did not fit in. As a result they stood out and that’s what geniuses are made of. Unfortunately, in our schools we insist on conformity because anything else means more work for us teachers. Do we ever think of how many geniuses we might have quashed in their formative years because of our own rigidity and faulty conditioning?
Today we hear the word “unemployable graduates” being used very carelessly in government and policy circles. But we stop short of identifying the reasons that make our colleges some kind of assembly line, turning out similar products by the thousands. And wait a minute! Policy makers need to ask themselves why so many young people need to go out of the state after Class XII. And mind you it’s not just for professional courses. Many join the Arts, Commerce or Science streams in prestigious colleges outside. Why? They find the courses innovative, the teachers motivated, the ambience challenging yet friendly and the treatment meted out to all students equitable. No one gets in by waving a ST certificate or a politician’s recommendation letter. They get in on pure merit. That makes a world of difference. In the end, our young people have it in them to get where they want to. What they need is an educational system that encourages enquiry training and curiosity and where teachers are appointed because they deserve to; because they are competent and not because they are political appointees or have got in by sheer deceit. I have, in these columns questioned schools that enrol teachers on the basis of religion. Those who practice the same faith as the institution are employed even if there are better ones in the queue.
Lastly, what has destroyed education in Meghalaya is the reservation system while enrolling teachers in Govt aided or Deficit Schools and Colleges which is pretty much like the reservation on religious lines. We have had some leading colleges having to sack their non-tribal teachers just because some pressure group want to push in a second rate tribal teacher in. Can you have quality in such a system? Forget it!
So what you have today is large scale migration of students after Class XII. Those who can afford want to attend institutions of credence that guarantee them a space to free their minds, to ask questions, to challenge convention, to break out of the mould and to learn to live life on their terms even while they work hard to reach their goals.
Hence looking at the educational scenario here can we say with all honesty that Shillong is an educational hub? Just because we are better than Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram Tripura or Arunachal Pradesh, in terms of the educational standards (up to Class XII or under-graduate level) can we assume to have made it to the top of the heap? No we haven’t and the sad part of the story is that even if good, credible educational institutions with international standards want to set up shop here, we are ready with the same old tired plaint of, “land belongs to the people,” so no land is available even for educational institutions. What a shame! Educational hub? No way!