Editor,
There is a lot of murmur about the DTO’s Office in Shillong being one of the most corrupt offices. The system itself is deeply flawed because people cannot stand in the long queue and sometimes have to come the next day for a small matter of renewing their licenses etc. Hence most people depend on the middle-man (dalal) who charge a hefty amount of money for a small job. Recently, Mr H. Khongsit was appointed as the new DTO Shillong. From what appeared in the newspapers, he seems to want to do away with many corrupt practices in his office. Some days ago when I went to renew the fitness certificate of my vehicle, I could see the signboards displaying the rates of different documents needed for the vehicles. I thought to myself that the DTO’s office now has become a transparent and non-corrupt office. I paid Rs, 300 at the counter for the renewal of fitness of my light motor vehicle. To get the new certificate I was told to meet the MVI. I entered the MVI Mr I. Kharmon’s office. The clerk in the chamber who printed the certificate was polite. The printed certificate was to be signed by the MVI (Kharmon). He is a middle aged person and seemed honest as well. When he had signed, I thought he would ask me to pay Rs 50 as the actual rate displayed in the signboard near the counter. But to my utter dismay he said, “Mister, you have to Rs 500 as I am charging that amount for local taxis.” I was really shocked by the behaviour of this corrupt officer. There are more than 5000 local taxis plying within Shillong region. So, if he charges Rs 500 for one taxi (instead of Rs 50 as stipulated) imagine how much money he will accumulate from poor people like me in a year? So I request the DTO to please make the MVIs also accountable for their work. I also request the other taxis driver, owners etc to air their grievances. We cannot keep silent if we wish to remove corruption from our midst.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request
Overhauling education
Editor,
The article, “Education: An Urgent Need for Change,” by Florette G Dkhar, is a crucial subject to focus on. It’s a general fact that students today study to pass and not to cultivate livelong knowledge. Out of 24 hours nearly three-fourth of it are spent on assimilating facts and figures inscribed in the acarpous syllabus which produces no stars in the knowledge generating systems. Various international and national surveys have pointed to the poor performance of India’s educational institutions which do not appear in the world’s top 200 despite the advantage of having a large youth population. Hence, all these imply the presence of loopholes in our educational policies or their implementation.
Coming back to Meghalaya, the recent declared SSLC examination with a pass percentage of 54% is pathetic considering the examination process has become easier with internal marking, reduced number of subjects; the gaps in between subjects etc. While appreciating those who have excelled, the standard of education cannot be judged from the few students in the merit list or others scoring letter marks in some subjects. This is a collective system were both the haves and have-nots are counted to get conclusive figures.
To administer remedial measures the writer had pointed to the need for reversing the system from “Teacher Centered Pedagogy” to “Child Centered Pedagogy.” But why not focus both in a well balanced manner since both are integral to education. The former has been the point of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) because teachers are the backbone of the whole system. For example how can we expect a teacher to devote their time and effort when their very survival and that of their families hang by a thread due to non-payment of salaries by the authorities concerned, sometimes for six months. Add to that the burden of syllabus completion! Secondly in the job opportunities sector teaching has always been the last option for job seekers which then hampers the quality of teaching. Hence NCT was not wrong in framing the theme of teacher-centeredness. Nowadays our students don’t even know how to decide their careers because they don’t really know their subjects. The ultimate result is a high drop-out rate. We cannot blame the students entirely since teachers are the ones with the bigger role of igniting the curiousity for different subjects. This is needed for the growth of research and development in our country.
The need of the hour is a policy framework which addresses the needs of both teachers and students. The latter need opportunities for growth and an attractive salary, equal to that enjoyed by those in the IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS etc. The students need to be linked with various state/central boards of education as far as framing of syllabus, evaluation process and examination process is concerned thereby making the system more dynamic. In addition, stringent implementation of various Centrally Sponsored Schemes in education must be followed and implementers held accountable. Merging both these dimensions and implementation of those frameworks in letter and spirit can be the only remedy needed to address the current malady of our educational system. However this needs a strong political will.
Yours etc.,
Sonie Kharduit,
New Delhi