Editor,
We, are a society of nay sayers. Its NO to Railways, NO to Outsiders, NO to CAB, NO to Aadhar Cards, NO to Covid Vaccine, NO to Uranium Mining, NO to Road leading to the mines, No to deaths in the coal mines, and now NO to Uniform Civil Code. We have an extremely negative mindset. We believe we know everything, and the entire world besides us is populated by idiots, out to decimate us.
We should remember that we are a revenue deficit state. All the money that we spend, all the development that is happening, all the infrastructure that is being built, all of it comes from the Centre. Then should we also say NO to all of that? The bulk of the money spent is from the revenue generated by what is paid by the so-called non-tribals. Then why are we so agnostic towards them? Do we want to become a failed state like Myanmar?
Currently, all and sundry have come out against the UCC, and that is downright laughable, since the central government is currently only asking for views of the public, and the draft UCC document has not even been made public, so I wonder what is there to oppose it without even having seen it. It seems we oppose everything just the sake of opposing, without any rhyme or reason, and have proved ourselves as nitwits and morons, because to us, everything is negative, including our outlook to life.
Yours etc.,
Lambok Dkhar,
Via email
Education on the wings of the wind
Editor,
Once upon a time before the coming of the cash economy, households were self-sufficient; families even had time for recreational activities. Now, majority of poor parents are forced to live in the rut and have to slog just to see their wards on the other side of the horizon; to see that they do not have to go through the same journey of illiteracy and poverty, they themselves had to walk. But how far? Were they in the know of the trappings awaiting them? Of course not; it’s reserved for a few. The situation of parents and of learners is grim. In fact, one would not be wrong to infer it to a premonition of disaster lurking to snatch them one by one. It’s only the hope for a better future that fires them to work to the last atom of their energy. But for how long? The answer is not in their pockets, but in those of our own making.
Last time I saw in this paper that the government planned to seek more funds from the union government for training of teachers. Only this, and nothing else? Are teachers the only ones responsible for all success and failures of the whole Teaching-Learning process? Or what are they trying to insinuate? Of course, we teachers too have to evolve and transcend those notions of the past- from a teacher into a facilitator of the noble inborn potentials in a child. We have to understand the mental, spiritual, emotional propensity of learners. Our assessment must change from being objectively guided by how a child arrives at the answer by rote memory, to looking into the way they approach the problem from a subjective stand point ; how they use the previous knowledge of concepts and dovetail them to arrive at conclusions. We teachers have only to see how they use their logic to establish the relationship between different components for getting at the solution. Some learners are gifted with wisdom that will surprise us. Those internal workings of the mind form a big portion of our task. After all, the children are not ours; we are theirs. So why not they even disagree with our viewpoints based on sound arguments? Such spaces must be there and inbuilt. We can also predict what a child can do, or is capable of from the work at hand, if we care. Till date our education is an industry, and a child its product. These are to name a few of the things that bewilder education. So, no time for complacency for us.
The above condition fulfilled, the next are the admins staff. A very attractive position indeed it is. It reflects power and social prestige regardless of whether they have or don’t have the knack for comprehending the demands of the task. A good percentage of them landed up on the wings of the wind; the wind of being affiliated with some bigwigs, religious denomination, and so on. Do the degrees they hold, matter? Let the universities answer. Yet from the beginning of formal education, they have been the ones running the show; the teachers only had to implement the design. At times teachers become soft targets at the whims of these educational administrators, parents, and of the whole system. To solve this problem, a simultaneous training of teachers and admins is an urgent need where they are trained by the same experts, grilled with questions and given a challenge to solve them together. It’s an inherent human proclivity to hide a weakness specially when in a higher echelon but we have no choice. The pill however bitter it may be, must be swallowed, and with humility, as the mission we are serving is far greater than our individual selves. In such trainings each party can learn of their strengths and weaknesses, and learn from them. Team work! This will pave the way for working together once they go back to their former settings.
To conclude, the education department can do all, and has all the means to fulfil its aspirations which are in line with the aims and objectives of the NEP. It would help save the waste of financial resources while simultaneously doing justice to the “educere and educare”, which we learnt in colleges of teachers’ education. Let’s strive together for the future of our children.
Yours etc.,
Iasaid Khongjee,
(School teacher)
Via email
Failure of district administration
Editor,
The recent sporadic incidents around Laitumkhrah and the subsequent call to curtail businesses by 10 pm is a knee jerk reaction without proper application of logic and wisdom. Civil servants should understand that when they were taken into service their foremost pledge was to be public servants and not public masters. The administration of any city or town becomes successful and implementable when the right thought process is applied. Take another instance – the regulation of odd and even numbers for local cabs. The use of this model is full of loopholes and illogical for many reasons which requires due research and not haphazard orders. If the odd- even formula is to be implemented then it should apply across all types of vehicles including government owned and especially those ferrying tourists from Assam. The reason for the discrepancy in such administrative orders is that those sitting on their cozy chairs forget that they are public servants to resolve the issues of the public and not act as masters of puppets.
Yours etc.,
Dominic S. Wankhar
Via email