Editor,
School going children are experiencing the worst nightmare of their lives with parents patiently bearing the pain. It appears incurable any longer. What cannot be cured must be endured BUT endurance has its limits. Hence I offer a few suggestions for Govt to ponder upon.
(1) The traffic police are manning the Barik Point to Civil Hospital to Anjalee petrol pump. Our daily experience is that though the stretch has a white line central divider, the bulk of traffic comprising light motor vehicles that are allowed to ply for the day do not obey the traffic rules. Right before the eyes of our policemen, there is a centre with law abiding drivers flanked on the left and right by those believing they own the road and are in a motor racing event. This disrupts the up-going school vehicles bound towards Laitumkhrah which is the much-touted education hub.
Why does the outbound traffic that returns after dropping school children need to break all rules of human civilization, and to cause delay to the incoming vehicles? The cure for this should be that the registration plates should be clearly visible both at the rear and front. Police should be equipped with cameras to record the errant drivers. After scrutinising with the District Transport Officer (DTO), a warrant order with fine and if warranted the license should be seized and the driver jailed. If police don’t have the mandate to take action as above then the law becomes a big joke!
(2) There is need for serious research into the reasons for the traffic mass. Unless the DTO and traffic police are overhauled and both are made to sit and meticulously find solutions there will be no cure to the conundrum.
(3) Step By Step School should stagger it’s school timing by at least 40 minutes. Why? This will enable the vehicles returning from Laitumkhrah to drive without being caught in a traffic jam at the Step By Step school junction.
Traffic police should ensure that drivers observe the etiquette of refuelling at petrol pumps. There is no denying that Marbaniang Pump (Fire Brigade) is the busiest pump in town because it has a reputation for accurate weight and quality while other pumps don’t. I request the Traffic Police to ensure that traffic flow is not disrupted because vehicles queue up at Marbaniang Petrol Pump. Petrol pumps should remain open up to 10 PM to allow the motorists to refuel without causing traffic jams. Traffic Police must be knowing this but do not communicate it to their bosses. Let the SP Traffic be at this spot so that he knows where the ailment lies.
(4) Ambulance movement ten years ago the good Samaritans had requested hospitals to welcome traffic accident victims. It was enacted as law. So ambulance drivers should have tele-communications facility with police to direct them to the nearest hospitals not in terms of distance but in terms of time taken to reach the hospital. This would save lives at times when life seems to weigh less than a feather. This should be applicable to all emergency services. Huawei had practised this method in UK.
(5) Pollution Under Control (PUC). Let us be honest with ourselves. Suppose the registration no. is now at V or X. Assuming that 60% of vehicles are scrapped or a few are in workshops, how can motorists who are law abiding citizens, reach the testing centre which is easily accessible? And all of a sudden our Union Transport Minister N. Gadkari, made innocent motorists to lose sleep for no fault of theirs. If a person has taken a loan to purchase a vehicle for school and office duty and if the pollution test fails the car can be seized and scrapped.This appears to be a bonanza for car dealers.
Let the Government be more proactive in matters of life and death. If the above humble suggestions are accepted with a resolute mindset, our school children and patients in urgent need of speed will be greatly relieved.
Yours etc
M. Khyriem
Shillong 14.
Craze for Science education
Editor,
Meghalaya, the so-called “hub for education”, has registered a decline in the quality of education in recent times. While this may be one of the umpteen letters on the state of education in our state there are certain details mentionable here. It’s well known by all that, in the higher secondary schools, Meghalaya reflects competition of, say, the Delhi University admissions. In certain schools one must belong to the “crème de la crème” to get in. The rest of are mostly students who take up Science due to parental pressure and who try to get into any school that admits them. What happens next is pure business.
The sky-rocketing fee structure for the Science stream is troubling to even consider for families that live from hand to mouth, but the parents struggle to meet those expenses anyway. It’s necessary for one to be aware and not to be ignorant about the situation of the Science stream in higher secondary schools. Many such schools take in hundreds of students in Class XI, who, as mentioned earlier, may or may not prefer Science at all, but have been forced to take up the subject. Parents who can afford then send their children for private tuitions, thereby incurring extra expenditure. Students who can’t cope with Science are then filtered out and dropped out the following year. These students then experience emotions of depression, lack of confidence and shame. Not only have they lost one year in doing something they may or may not have ever wanted to do but they also lose interest in the whole idea of studying.
The whole process then repeats the following year where fresh students have to undergo the same experience again. Why can’t all schools have a proper structure to help students pick a stream suitable to them? Why can’t parents stop the age-old practice of forcing their children to take up Science, in accordance with the typical; Asian stereotype? We can simply look around us and ask- are all successful people only those with a Science background?
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request
Via email
