Blanket Ban On Private Tuitions; Another Exercise In Futility!

Instead of bringing innovations in teaching profession, govt is trying rejected formulas for publicity

Jammu, October 27: The government seems confused and in total chaos as far as bringing order to education sector is concerned as it has been using old and rejected formulas to cleanse the education sector from what it calls “moral turpitude” without realizing that such exercises have always been exercises in futility and encouraged ‘Inspector Raaj’ in the state.

One wonders who gives such ‘novel’ suggestions to this new dispensation which is distancing itself from the masses by the day due to its illogical and ill conceived ideas which are not only impossible to implement but also encourages red tape-ism which had been shunned long ago.

While the concern of the government towards nuisance of private tuitions is genuine but the way it wants to implement it is impractical.

This smacks of authoritarian mindset where government is run on the whims and fancies of a few people who are remotely connected to education and instead of doing basic research by involving all the stake holders including teachers, implementing blanket ban is fraught with dangerous consequences as another set of people will find the way to fill its pockets with bribe which definitely would not be the concept behind the ban.

Has the government thought about its mindless decision of recruiting ReTs on paltry amounts of Rs 1500/-  which is not sufficient even to pay monthly bill of the milkman leave aside running the households and then it expects the ReTs not to go for private tuition to earn a bit extra to run their households.

These bureaucratic decisions are impractical as they hardly know the realities of life, getting huge salaries every month and living luxurious lives, and remind us of the infamous quote of the likes of Raj Babbar who once said a hearty meal in Mumbai can be bought for Rs. 12 while another Congress leader, Rasheed Masood, had said Rs. 5 in Delhi was sufficient for the same.

The government seems in a hurry to catch the headlines like ,”Govt Cracks Whip on private tuitions” or “ordering and directing” to get publicity and satisfy the ego of a few while the common man can go to dogs.

The question is do they have any plan to revive the educational sector other than such frivolous decisions which will be counterproductive very soon and become another breeding ground for bribes.

With such actions the government is not only playing with the sentiments of the teachers but also undermining the profession instead of bringing professionalism in the educational sector.

How is it that people with less salary in private educational institutions offer better services and people prefer private schools over government schools despite the fact that salaries of government teachers are high as well as their education?

The fault lies in the policies of the government and not the teachers or the schools as laws are made by the people who hardly know the profession while the government should have involved the best teachers, best managers, best educational entrepreneurs and best students in policy making as also the syllabus and everything related to education to bring transparency, professionalism and improvement instead of leaving it to politicians and bureaucrats.

Involving the real stake holders and experts is the solution and not the blanket bans without any thought. All successive governments till date have failed in such flimsy tactics and these steps have always remained within the newspaper headlines while on ground nothing changed.

This also demoralizes the teachers and degrades them while the Indian tradition was to put the teacher at the highest position in the society and those who think it is only teachers who have brought bad name to the profession are mistaken and instead it is the political nose poking and bureaucratic arrogance that prevents good teachers from coming forward to suggest right and practical measures for the real development of the education in the state.

Hope somebody in the government is listening and ready to change the situation.

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