While educationists are raising hue and cry that the government’s move to recognize guidebooks and coaching will simply put the primary and secondary level education at risk. In reality, the government since its coming to power in 2009 has been anxious to over politicising the teachers and not insisting on teachers to teach. To show success, the government has also manipulated result of examinations. The end result is that the students were denied quality education. Such an act is a crime committed against our children. But who care? The educationists said allowing guidebooks and coaching centres would cause damage and increase the cost of education. If this ill thought-out design of the government is carried out then education would become a commodity and a product beyond the reach of common citizens. The school and textbooks will simply be useless for educating the generations.
It is not that we do not have qualified educationists or competent people in other fields. But they have the habit of blaming the wrong ones. The cost of education is high because of extra-help has to be bought for the students.
Our educationists should now ask the government to sack the teachers enjoying fat salaries because the parents will unnecessarily pay them when the students will have to rely on coaching centres and guidebooks.
The harsh truth is that our educational institutions – be that a primary school or a university – are no more ‘houses of education’ providing learners with quality knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, the teachers serving there are mostly under-graded persons recruited on political lines.
Either incompetent teachers are appointed or government is using them for its party politics, but in both the cases, any responsible government will admit its failure and see that teachers are competent enough and take responsibility for students’ success in exams.
We are not supporting coaching centres, but equally we cannot support a system under which the teachers do not teach. The students cannot be forced to bear the expenses of the teachers as well the coaching centres. Good education has to be imparted by educational institutions and not by the coaching centres and guide books of unproven sources.
