Shiban Khaibri
A manufactured topper of 12th standard in Bihar securing 444 out of 500 marks , when asked by a press correspondent as to the subjects she “studied”, pat came the reply – “Inglis , Jugrafy, Hestrie, Hindi ….” , she could not name another and when insisted upon, getting some invisible whispers, named the subject as “Prodigal Sanus” . The reporter must have felt sorry over his “lack of knowledge” about this subject having never ever heard by him, dared to politely but repeatedly ask the “scholar” as to what was that subject of “Prodigal Sanus” all about, the Bihar topper, after a long pause told that the subject in question was about “Khana Pakayee”. The reporter is “reported” to be under tremendous bewilderment over such a piece of knowledge having had to gather during his course of performing his inquisitive nature of journalism. Once Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge” and the topper did exactly the same- firstly she imagined about her subjects, secondly , she imagined about one more subject – the rechristened Political Science as the “Prodigal Sanus ” and lastly, she imagined what the hell could Political Science be except all about the art of cooking . She had graciously borrowed the word of ” IAS” from amongst many nears and dears who had visited her to felicitate over the “feat” of topping the prestigious Board exams and she desired to “become” an IAS. This “scholar” Rubi Rai along with the other “toppers” Sourabh, Rahul Kumar and Shalini are so much “innocent” that they do not know or are not even familiar with the subjects they “studied” and “took” the examination in and subsequently “fared” so well that they topped the Board exams.
The TV Channels did a yeoman’s job in exposing the rue-able situation of the institutions of education and the morality prevailing there and the money power playing havoc just like that does in Indian Politics. While writing these lines, this writer watched a daring TV press correspondent aiming his camera on the students taking exams in BA, BSc in one college in Arrah, Bhojpur – Bihar where the “principled” Principal was brazenly but relaxingly offering his services to the students to hide for a moment, heaps of cheating material, notes, books and whatever to save exposure through the camera. The glaring camera and its likely aftermaths neither worried the examinees nor the Principal who later talking to the reporter said that “There was no cheating going on in his college” . Such a Principal deserves to be dismissed from service followed by a legal action against him for facilitating cheating and in fact helping the examinees in this despicable act. Should there be any grain of probity left with the institutions of learning in Bihar, all such toppers of the last at least five years, from the institute where Rubi Rai could manage securing a top position, should be subjected to basic minimum knowledge test by a team of experts to know where they stood. This could work to restore some semblance in the operative system and restore confidence in those students who work hardest and who do not believe in employing any foul means to clear various exams.
Reports are there that if one has just Rs. 50000, a first division was guaranteed on pay back condition in case of “default”. One V .R. College turned shop in Vaishali Bihar promising “guaranteed successful ” results from where these “scholars ” topped the Board Exams, has been producing , nay – manufacturing toppers , of course, with a “little help” from some officials of the Board. Its Principal Bachha Rai is the most eligible and a fit case of verification and scrutinizing the “obtained” degrees and his case could be probed into by Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal who even did not “spare” the Prime Minister of the country and suspected his academic degrees but he does not appear to peep into the “affairs” of his Political friends and in political alignment, Nitish Ji and in particular Laloo Ji are his “natural allies” hence no word on this murder of merit and moral propriety. Can anyone just at 19 become Principal of an institute on the basis of alleged “managed” degrees and later also becoming its powerful secretary , hats off to our media because of whose reporting, the lid was removed from the stinking pot and now he is behind the bars. In the absence of an impartial effective media with a very few exceptions, perhaps we would have remained ignorant about such malpractices and in particular the train of scams under UPA2 would have not been known with so much of details . It is another thing that the media gets avoidable invectives from known top politicians like UP CM Akhilesh Yadav that those who make such reporting, “Un Ka Munh Kaala” (incensed on exposure of failure of his administration in containing migration of Hindu families in Kairana).
Look at the other side, this writer in Delhi recently had a chance to go through the type and the standard of books prescribed to the tiny tots of just class 1. There are four books on English including “literature” and Grammar; four Hindi books including Vyakaran (Grammar) , three math books, one each in Environmental Science and General knowledge and what not. The child presently supposed to “enjoy” summer vacations has been given three printed pages of Home assignment in English where among other things, he is asked to visit a museum, water park or zoo with his parents and write an essay in English on what he saw there and how he enjoyed the most, define an Adjective, a pronoun, a verb, an article etc; and use in sentences followed by attending to exercise assignment lucidly on these concepts of grammar. Due to the paucity of space, more on it cannot be highlighted but the fact that at some point in undergoing the competition for carving a career, the student having risen with such an unbelievable high standard of learning has to compete with the likes of Rubi Rai who calls Political Science as “Prodigal Sanus” and can easily score 444 out of 500 marks. A tragedy of merit, indeed.
Is there a grave lacuna in our education system? Has our Education Policy all these six decades been not uniform, bumpy, confused and under the web of trials ? Why should there be one type of standard of teaching and learning at one place and quite different at another place? Has cheap politics entered into our education system so much that on the ground of promoting regional language, the importance of English and particularly that of Hindi are relegated to the background? Why should we not address the glaring discrepancies in handling the system of examinations to rule out political and muscle power to manufacture grades, degrees and circumvent attempts to promote mass copying and cheating ? Why cannot we stop unfortunate suicides committed by promising students who seeing exam results about many of their school – college mates beyond expectations than their own and hence proving it as an abetment to take extreme steps? Parents are nowadays not only concerned about how better their wards perform in exams but how they could shape their career and as such focus has shifted away from conventional learning and teaching and how much is our education policy alive to this need and ready to undergo a massive turnaround, needs to be analyzed? Referring to prescribing 14 books to a child of 6 or 7 years in Class 1 at one place of our country and entirely different at another place and hence concentration of burden, tensions, pressures and pulls around these burdened children should be on the plank of resolution by our policy framers.
We can progress only when we impart the best education and training to our children to compete at national level and perhaps at international level. We have to prescribe books that are based on truth and not twisted on facts to suit political compulsions. At the same time uniformity at the national level has to be ensured leaving pursuing different models and courses. Parents must inculcate the habit of broadening the level of knowledge in subjects right from conceptual clearance from the infancy. Political and muscle intervention should be not even thought of in our education system. Feel the pulse of the aspirations of the students. It is right time.
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