By Patricia Mukhim
Education not a priority for MLAs
As a state our priority apart from health should be education yet the further we drive from Shillong the more we witness the decrepit state of our education system. Government seems to focus only on district headquarters and not beyond that. Let me cite the example of Syntung village under Mawkynrew Constituency, (earlier known as Dienglieng Constituency) and asked the villagers if there is a high school in the village and where do the students go for their higher secondary education. I was told there is only one high school and the payment for teachers teaching Classes 9 and 10 is met from donations and collections from the villagers. The school gets government assistance only tyo pay teachers up to Class 8. After completing their Senior School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations, the students have to either go to Shillong to pursue Class 11-12 or travel all the way to Jongksha which is about 35 kms away. Despite the difficulties, some students have managed to excel in their studies and study engineering in distant Kashmir.
At Mawkynrew village about 30 Kms from Syntung there is a school coming up which is intended to provide education up to the Higher Secondary level. It is being run by the Ramakrishna Mission and is work in progress. But currently some disgruntled elements including the former Sordar (headman) of the village have formed a group and gone to court to protest against the construction of the school and questioned why land is being allocated to Ramkrishna Mission. To even question the credentials of Ramakrishna Mission despite their huge endeavour to provide quality education in some of the remotest areas of Meghalaya, reeks of ugly personal motives and the usual village politics that is the bane of this blighted State of Meghalaya. We are a people that rejects all progressive programmes and want to keep people at a disadvantage so that they can then manipulate the gullible village folks who cannot make informed decisions and are liable to be led like sheep to the slaughter house.
Considering that Ramakrishna Mission has been and is providing two sets of uniform, books and shoes free to students from poor households because they are committed to bring the light of education among the people it is pathetic that anyone in their right minds would drag them to court and that the court would even entertain such frivolous cases that have no legs to stand on considering that land has been allocated by the Sordar of that village and the matter has also been authenticated by the Syiem of Hima Khyrim, in the larger interests of the people. Villagers from these areas, including Nongjrong and other villages spend a considerable amount of money to educate their children in Shillong from Class 11-12 to college and of course university education. Families that live from hand to mouth obviously cannot afford to so do and end up making their children work instead of study.
The objective of Ramakrishna Mission has been to provide education and healthcare to the underprivileged. They have done so for a century ever since they landed in these hills a hundred years ago. In fact in September this year they will be entering the 101st year of their mission here. There are some who believe that Ramakrishna Mission is on a conversion mission. We have had some of the best politicians and bureaucrats who studied in the RK Mission schools. Have they converted? Was there even an attempt to convert them? There was no such compulsion ever…
Why no land allocated for a hospital at Sohra?
It is learnt also learnt that RK Mission have been approached by the people of Sohra to start a hospital there. The Mission is ready to do that and to seek the necessary funds but their problem again is non-availability of land. If land cannot be allocated for more advanced healthcare for which most people require to come all the way to Shillong because the government CHCs and PHCs work in the breach then there is something seriously wrong with the social commitment of the Syiem and sordars of those villages. Don’t they want people to have better and more accessible healthcare? True the affluent population like the Syiem and sordar’s family might can send their children to the best schools in Shillong and rent a house for them but what about the rest of the villagers that are too poor to follow that route?
Absence of public protests for right causes
What is also a very troubling phenomenon is that people don’t have the capacity to agitate when such things happen. The parents sending their kids to RK Mission School at Mawkynrew should have united to protest against those that are intent on closing down the school. The families that are asking for a hospital at Sohra should also have the capacity to build an alliance for the right causes. What is the point in having these traditional heads who are anti-people and anti-development?
Now comes the role of the MLAs. By and large MLAs have never been interested in the education of their constituents. It is the duty of the MLA as an elected representative to step in and sort out the quibbling in their constituencies, especially those related to matters of education. How can anyone prevent an institution that provides education from being set up in a place where it is most needed?
Police as bystander
The RK Mission head says that even the police are silent when the opponents of the school at Mawkynrew enter the premises to disrupt classes and raise an uproar. Are the police not there to prevent trouble mongers from getting their way? Who is directing the police to act in favour of the protestors? It is important for the state government to step in and find out the reasons for the present dispute at the RK Mission school in Mawkynrew? Also why is the state so weak when it comes to acquiring land for philanthropic causes such as the setting up of a hospital where needed? The state cannot be indifferent on the plea that “land belongs to the people.” This is a lazy excuse and it is in the fitness of things for the state to iron out all these petty differences that stand in the way of people being provided their basic needs that the state on its own has failed miserably to provide.
Legislators not part of the Executive
MLAs are legislators and schemes are implemented by the government read ‘executive.’ There are distinct roles here. Legislators are lawmakers and have no right to interfere in distribution of largesse such a CGI sheets, seeds, fertilisers and a host of other benefits that come from the Centre and to play politics with who gets what. Once an MLA is elected he/she has to represent the entire constituency and all voters are to be treated equally. The government has the onus of keeping a watch on non-partisan distribution of schemes to ensure that MLAs don’t deprive some constituents because they did not vote for him/her.
These are topics that need to be discussed. Can the public of Meghalaya focus on the right issues?