Affiliation Heckles Again - Editorial of IFP

Quite surprisingly, the news of the supposed intent of the Nagaland government to move a resolution in the Nagaland Assembly to allow affiliation of schools outside of the state with the state’s board of secondary education, did not make it to the pages of the local dailies in Nagaland or Manipur, the two neighbouring states most directly involved in the case. This bit of news came instead in the Indian Express, New Delhi, but all the same has managed to trigger plenty of furore and sabre rattling in Manipur and indignant disdain at Manipur’s reaction to it in Nagaland. Chief minister Okram Ibobi’s Cabinet even passed a resolution to disallow any schools from the state to affiliate to any other boards outside the state without the government’s prior permission. Many civil society bodies and students organisations have also made known their vehement opposition to any attempt to wean away schools from the state by any other states. We wonder if all these are not a case of jumping the gun. At least let the news be confirmed from the horses mouth first before heckles are raised. Why is that a very local news item did not find a reflection in local newspapers? Even if this is possible, although strange, why should not the governments of the two states have taken each other into confidence before resorting to unilateral decisions on what is essentially a bilateral issue. When this spirit is overridden, every action of the other is seen with suspicion and a brutish provocation. If the two governments are interested in a resolution to many of the problems their two states share and bitterly contest, they must show the way for the civil societies in their respective states by being at least in communication with each other, even if they have lost all sense of cordiality and protocol.

If the affiliation issue was not so obviously and brazenly a political statement (albeit of the underground variety) which implies the dismemberment of Manipur, the story could have been a lot different. In fact, it would not have been such a bad idea for the two governments to coordinate, and in the border areas especially, as per administrative conveniences and academic benefits the students can avail, schools could have been allowed to affiliate to the boards of each other’s states. This arrangement could very well be between other neighbours too, and in an informal and indirect way, this has been the case too all the while. Children from border villages have been known to choose schools according to proximity and not by political boundaries, which is why, many early generation literates in Nagaland have had their education in Jorhat and Dibrugargh. Likewise, a good percentage of our educated manpower today, are products of schools and colleges in Shillong. Now the net of inter-migration of students has spread much wider and the student community from the northeast in Delhi for instance run into tens of thousands.

In specialised higher education institutions, this is happening as a norm. The RIMS and CAU for instance, have students from all over the northeast. There are such institutions in Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and the other northeastern states where combined education resource pools are shared between the states. If the state governments were cooperative, maybe such institutions could also have been thought of at the lower and mid stratums of education as well for the benefit of all, and with the single-minded objective of making the younger generation sharper and more prepared to meet the challenges of the increasingly competitive globalized world. As for schools in Manipur, if the other ethnic communities are of the opinion that curriculum is too inclined to the Meitei viewpoint, maybe the canvas can be broadened further to include more. As for instance, there could be multiple choice history curriculum, or if every student is expected to keep Manipuri as a second language, maybe a third language could also be introduced whereby a Meitei student would be bound by the syllabus to learn a tribal language and Manipuri, whereas a tribal student can learn his or her native tongue and Manipuri to balance off the academic burden on all. Let the era of sinister scheming end, so that the state can begin applying its mind to genuine problem solving strategies. Isn’t it time to allow Manipur to begin moving forward without being bogged down at every step by conflicts of vested interests?


Imphal Free Press

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Ibobi’s Commandment to Ministers CM cracks efficiency whip

IMPHAL, Sep 16: Striving to ensure proper and purposeful implementation of numerous Central-sponsored development programmes the Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has reportedly instructed Ministers concerned to keep close a tab on heads of departments of their respective ministries.

According to informed source, the CM had asked his ministerial colleagues to closely monitor whether relevant departments are sincerely executing welfare schemes being taken up under the financial provision of NLCPR, NEC, Special Plan Assistance etc.

The Chief Minister is said to have yesterday circulated instructions to the Ministers to process appropriate measures for penalising officials/heads of department found to be derelicting assigned tasks and to reflect such negligence, if any, in service records of the responsible officials.

The crackdown seems to be a fallout of the union Planning Commission’s missive to the State Government to hold back funds, as the source disclosed that the Centre had insisted on producing utilization certificate on schemes provided to the State under the SPA within December failing which the second instalment would not be sanctioned.

It is pertinent to mention that a similar instruction had been conveyed by the Centre that insist upon periodical revision of projects under the SPA at the Chief Minister as well as the level of department concerned.

In another development, the source confided that on completion of the Manipur Government Employees’ List (MGEL), being worked out with the technical assistance of NIC, record verification of the employees would ensue.

maintaining that till date MGEL exercise had been completed regarding employees of Education Department while such preparation for Revenue Department is still at the nascent stage, the source also pegged strength of State Government to a little over 52,000.

The MGEL exercise had trimmed down employees strength of Education Department from 16,000 to 12,000.