By Patricia Mukhim
The vocabulary of a Khasi especially when he/she makes a public speech is replete with the words ‘kolshor’ (culture) ka riti ka dustur (tradition) jaitbynriew (the exclusive term for our people), ka niam ka rukom, (religion and rituals) ka imlang – sahlang (society…literal interpretation existing together, living together). These words are first used to make people feel they are a special breed, descended straight from heaven to inhabit this special place in the centre of the earth (ka shnong shong pdeng pyrthei) whose boundaries are now under contestation. After emotions have been sufficiently whipped up to make us feel we are a special race so that we forget our present plight, we are then told in graphic details that our present fate is because there is the outsider waiting and watching to usurp what belongs to us.
Now, we are a society that’s not known for critical thinking or questioning. That’s because we grew up being told that whatever the elders say cannot and should not be contested. Khasis believe conversations can happen only among peers; so children speak to their age group; adolescents to theirs and adult talk among themselves. Children cannot have a respectful conversation with their parents. Perhaps educated parents may do so but many parents only talk down to their kids. Naturally when kids who have never been allowed to speak, grow up they don’t speak at school and even in college. How many students can stand up and tell their teachers they have not understood what was taught? They won’t and they can’t. So they just go back home not understanding many of the concepts taught and which teachers take for granted is understood. The feedback loop is non-existent. The accumulation of concepts not understood is what leads to failure and dropping out of school ultimately.
Silence is the attribute of even the best of scholars. The few who talk only do so on issues they are directly affected by. They are hardly concerned about price rise; mal-governance; poor road conditions; growing poverty; single mothers; the fall in education standards etc. Some teachers are afflicted by the abysmal quality of the MBOSE syllabus but cannot go public on that matter. They say that the MBOSE syllabus does not equip our students with the acumen to write the NEET, CUET and other competitive exams. Now the question to MBOSE and more specifically the Education Minister is why does MBOSE not have a curriculum which outlines the educational goals and structure of the entire learning programme besides the learning standards, details, lessons and supporting materials? A syllabus only outlines the topics, objective and requirements of a particular course. It is important for MBOSE to have both for best learning outcomes.
Now why are educated parents, some of whom are teachers themselves not pointing this out to the Education Minister? Have we ever heard of a parents’ body ever meeting the Education Minister or officials of the Education department to engage with them on the ailments that afflict MBOSE? Why not? Why talk about these things only amongst themselves? How does that help anyone at all? Have we ever heard MLAs discussing the fate of the students of MBOSE because of the limitations of the syllabus? All the noise we hear are about the grievances of teachers who are either not paid on time or are under-paid. Has anyone ever taken out a procession or a fast on behalf of students? I have not heard of a protest on behalf of students who are forced to study under a self-limiting system that does not equip them to compete with their peers in the CBSE and ICSE learning systems.
Our time and energy is spent on discussing issues on social media which in a way helps us vent but does not resolve our problems because it does not reach the right quarters. Many of our youth who are victims of the educational system that does not recognise their special needs, go on to become songsters who moan their fates through their lyrics. Thankfully there is a system that pays singers today but is every singer able to eke out a livelihood? Perhaps not. It is here that we need to discuss the future and not obfuscate it by romanticising the past.
As a society that keeps harping on the past one would imagine that the past must have been a golden era. If so, why are our folk tales so grim and dark? Is there anything we can learn from them that would stand us in good stead in the future? I don’t think so. Then what is the romance with the past all about? In fact, one songster who is no longer with us, even crafted a patriotic song that put the blame for all the dirt and filth around the hills and dales of his beloved land to the ‘mynder shisngi’ (a rank outsider). Why are we always ready to pin the blame on some outsider? When have we ever had a deep reflection cum introspection on what actually ails us and try and remedy the causes rather than live in denial?
I was talking to a young man the other day and he was troubled by the kind of ranting (with all the swear words in Khasi) on social media. He said it seemed as if these young ravers were deeply frustrated and angry with the world around them. This is not the only thing afflicting our youth today. We have several homes that are dealing with at least one drug addict or alcoholic. Think of the predicament of those families especially if they are poor and cannot afford to take their son for rehab. These are issues we need to confront instead of harping on a past that is of no help to deal with the present challenges.
Sure we have a Tirot Sing and a Kiang Nongbah that our young men wish to emulate but are they using the achievement of these two heroes as the symbolic gold standard to live up to? Do they know that the standard-bearer for significance in the future will be a thousand-fold greater? The reality is that the present requires us to be ready for the disruptive technological changes which are shaking our very foundations and our laid back attitudes. We still stroll to our workplace without a care for punctuality and we have ready-made excuses – traffic jams to dish out.
In Meghalaya today, higher education is inaccessible to the socio-economically underprivileged, but does higher education really help? As I see it, higher education only certifies knowledge. It does not nurture learning. Rather it focuses on easily-outdated knowledge. In brief, it is failing on both counts of quality and access. These are issues that need discussion; not only just poor governance and corruption which topics are faded and jaded and politicians could not be bothered about.
I am not sure how MBOSE is adapting to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 – a policy that came after 34 years. NEP 2020 aims to recognise the need to evaluate “higher order skills” such as creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, visualisation, and idea generation. It emphasises on multi-disciplinary learning and no separations being made between vocational and academic streams. One recognises that implementing NEP requires resource injection into the education sector. Actually, right now, education should be the focus of Meghalaya. Other things will fall in place if we have a critical mass that can think for itself; think futuristic; question those that are elected to run the government and hold them accountable. Enough of looking back at the past. It’s the future that we need to envision. Our politicians need to outline what that future is that they are planning for the youth twenty or thirty years hence. That roadmap should be planned in a participatory manner, taking the youth into confidence.
The past is dead and gone. Take the good examples and use those to move forward. Our problem springs from the heavy reliance on tradition and traditional institutions when the demand is for modern governance with all its accountability mechanisms in place. But tradition and accountability are poles apart. Everyone wants power without accountability. Isn’t that Meghalaya’s biggest challenge? Look at the difficulties posed by the different dorbar shnong even in road construction projects. How many power centres can there be which are pulling in all directions at the cost of development. People are vocal when it comes to giving land to cement plants but not vocal when development projects are stalled by different pressure groups and power centres. These are harsh realities to deal with today. Let the past be buried. And truth be told we don’t even know enough about the past. How much is fact and how much fiction? So make new songs and create new ideas!