Editor,
I have seen a letter under the caption ‘Air Deccan Taking NEC for a Ride’ (ST May 21, 2018) and I would like to point out that the North Eastern Council (NEC) has no role in running of the Air Deccan Flights. Earlier, NEC was used to provide viability gap funding for Alliance Air. However, the fund has now been transferred to Ministry of Civil Aviation as per the direction of Ministry of Finance, and is no longer operated by NEC.
So far as the connectivity between various state capitals or major towns of North Eastern Region is concerned, NEC has always played the role of a facilitator and will continue to do so. However, in the present case, the onus is on Ministry of Civil Aviation and not on NEC.
Yours etc.,
Manas Ranjan Mahapatra
Director (Information and PR)
NEC, Shillong
NCERT no boon to MBOSE
Editor,
Any plan and policy should be based on pragmatic considerations. A knee-jerk decision might leave the public in a regretful situation. So the idea being toyed around by the Education Department to change the syllabus of the MBOSE to NCERT might turn out to be a disaster. It’s sheer naivety to hold that the CBSE and NCERT textbooks are impeccably perfect. No, they are far ahead of MBOSE as far as factual errors are concerned. Their published books are replete with errors. Some are blunders, some are typo errors and some are shockingly controversial. Please note, it’s not to defend MBOSE but less than a year ago more than “1300 factual errors”, both minor and major, were identified from the NCERT textbooks and tabled before the HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.
We need not be too cynical because even the education boards of UK, USA…. often have to deal with factual errors that have inadvertently crept in, into the school textbooks in the “first edition”. Thank God, it’s often discerning parents and the teaching community that bring these to the notice of the concerned education boards. BBC reported in January last year about the eight errors in a certain Mathematics book published by a world-renowned ‘Cambridge University Press’. Oxford is also not far behind in typo errors. During my earlier days, I had spotted a good number of spelling errors, double words, in the books published by such international publishing houses. True, the errors spotted in MBOSE publication can be corrected by mere letting out a “shout” but with NCERT it might take years together to get the book re-checked and corrected.
By all accounts there is another major drawback in NCERT books. There is an annoyingly irregular and short supply of the textbooks. While the MBOSE was following the NCERT syllabus only about 60% students, sometimes even less than 40%, could buy the books from the market. Many had to depend on Xerox copies. No doubt the NCERT publications are fairly cheap but in order to purchase a book of Rs. 90 the parents from Nongstoin had to visit Shillong over a dozen times because of the non-availability of books which may not be available at all through the year. Please calculate bit-by-bit the expenses likely to be incurred by the guardians besides the snack and lunch in Shillong town, and then finally when their journeys go waste.
Another sore point with the NCERT textbooks is that they are less descriptive and too brief with explanations, with comparatively few exercises, examples and classroom activities. To meet this “shortcoming” the bazaar publishers usually grab the opportunity and churn out a whole range of expensive guidebooks with attractive illustrations. That means more expenditure burden on the guardian. So, what’s the point in heaping praises on NCERT as our salvation? Of course, MBOSE should not lag behind in adopting the CBSE pattern particularly when conducting the examinations, setting questions and answer-script evaluation. Our students cannot score “good marks” which usually “prevents” them from competing with students of other states. This is the real bane of education in Meghalaya. The Government should give serious thought to this. I believe, our teachers must be suitably trained based on CBSE norms. The Government should be extra careful about being kind to our much ignored teaching lot by paying them good salaries on time. Lastly, the MBOSE must put all out efforts by thoroughly re-checking its textbooks and ensuring that the books are inch perfect in the second edition.
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali,
Shillong-2
Will RTI die a natural death?
Editor,
This is in reference to H H Mohrmen’s article titled “A mini Assembly in Jowai” (ST May 7, 2018) where he had written, “If the government agencies are able to engage the public in this kind of programmes then the public will come to know all about government schemes and they not only become empowered but RTI itself will die a natural death.” Maybe the writer is not so well versed with the powers and objectives of the RTI. The RTI is not only about getting information about government schemes. In fact the investigative powers of the RTI will be further strengthened when the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act comes into operation.
Yours etc.,
Michael N. Syiem,
Via email