(By Ashok Tankasala)
The spate of suicides by over a score of Intermediate students who failed their examinations has shook Telangana state during the past two weeks.
While it has spurred the Intermediate Board and the State Government into a flurry of remedial actions and provoked daily protests by students, parents, activists and opposition parties, commentators have begun to look into the causes of these unfortunate failures.
No doubt some measures will be taken to ‘protect’ the interests of
students in the light of inquiries being held, and a few
administrative steps, including chopping off of some heads, may also be taken.
Whether the Intermediate Board itself may be done away with by merging Inter level courses into High School education, as is being speculated, is something to be seen. But the Million Rupee Question at the end of the day is: What may happen to the basic malady? The malady afflicting the education in Telangana (of course as a legacy from the former united state, and continuing in the new state nevertheless) is such that there is no assurance that it will not throw up new symptoms of the disease.
Even brief look at the past history of this malady shows that it has many aspects to address. And the picture that yields is mind boggling in real sense.
What all do we see in that ‘dirty picture’ over the decades? The entry of private capital into education from primary to highest levels, consequently total marketization of the discipline and in parallel to it progressive weakening of governmental education.
This gave birth to the vermin that eventually developed into a multi-headed malady over the years with benign patronage by both the rulers and the private capital.
Thus we have seen a variety of competitive and other examinations being conducted, marks alone being hailed as the touchstone of students’ capabilities, flourishing of coaching shops, parents rushing to spend huge amounts with the hope of their wards shaping up as good marketable wares.
The fall out of all this has been the young minds and bodies coming under tremendous pressures. On the other, coming under the evil influence of all this the political class and governments, several of whose members themselves entered into this lucrative field of private education, willfully neglected governmental education. Budgetary support for it has begun to down rapidly. Infrastuctural facilities declined greatly.
The departmental officials have knowingly connived in all this, throwing rules to the winds, forgetting supervision and remedial actions, having their interests in mind.
Not to lag behind the teachers in government institutions also neglected teaching duties and took more interest in private tuitions. The one logic of all this has been the entry of private technical agencies, what with their mesmerizing ‘technical expertise’ , to do varied jobs earlier done by governmental departments, boards and staff. Another contribution of
this declining system has been corruption, paper leakages, doctoring of marks/ ranks and what not.
They call cancer ‘king of maladies’. The decades old rot has made our education a king-sized malady. And today it is gobbling up young lives, even while all the guilty shed crocodile tears. Can the young state of Telangana go for a comprehensive surgery on this? Certainly not an easy task. But it cannot be avoided either, whatever it may take, in the interest of its future generations and its own future.
(featured image: Newslaundry)