The tide has turned:

May 31/2011: Till last year the +2 streams in all private colleges had recorded awesome results. Monitored by the Council of Higher Secondary Education of Orissa, these educational institutions had, over the years, built up great infra structure in terms of buildings, labs and even libraries. Let no one say that most libraries had books that were in no way connected to the courses being taught at these colleges. That really does not matter. Most students do not go to the libraries anyways nor do they even have a concept of the utility of such a godown of old books. No doubt there must be a few exceptions amongst the students. We are only mentioning about the majority of them here. With such grand edifices came the names of the promoters and the lecturers also. It is well known that most lecturers in private colleges get paltry salaries. Yet their zest for teaching and imparting that secret ingredient to make success of the students of the colleges they worked for was a thing that did not go unnoticed. The admirers were many and at the same time the critics also seemed to multiply. This situation was mostly noticed in Science colleges.

The critics could finally shout loud enough that last year, after a long gap, the state government sat up and took notice. Media reports on the success of private science and commerce colleges vis a vis the failures of the government and aided colleges got even more shrill. It was openly discussed that government may even start thinking of ways and means to step out of the domain of education and leave it to more capable hands such as the private operators. The authorities in the Higher Education department, obviously, must have been a tad perplexed by the way things were going. Questions were definitely asked and answers were not forthcoming. Matters went far enough that the government was forced to set up a Crime Branch team to investigate which, even after 11 months of doing whatever could not locate the criminals. Surely, this must have frightened those involved. Footprints on the sands of time are not very easily washed away by the rising of the tide, they say. We are not aware who ‘they’ are but this much could easily be said that here in Orissa anything is capable of ebbing, forget about rising. The private colleges were definitely rising. And how! Phenomenal is one word that may be used to explain the event in a very mild tone. It was, in reality, far ahead of that.

On the other hand, government colleges and those aided by it were lagging behind in every respect. They had buildings that were mostly dilapidated. Truly, everything seemed dated.  Libraries were not worth the name. Science labs were empty or barely equipped. Contractors supplying chemicals and beakers and Bunsen burners made hay by not supplying such silly breakable items which careless students would destroy any which way,  although the staff in charge of stores did receive them on pen and some rubbish paper. Principals were busy planning their next transfers to places closer home. For that aim to be achieved anyone who was anybody needed to be invited and floored with flowers during the college annual functions. Local MLA to Minister to Secretary of the department all were very welcome. So in this process the very cause of these institutes to survive—impart good education at a reasonable cost—had been pushed aside. The results obtained year after year were disappointing and that was the cause for the clamor against wasting such huge quantities of tax payers’ money on these ‘redundant’ institutes.

In the process of soul searching (if some people could be labeled to have souls), the CHSE may have done a volte face to save itself from the murky past. Since the situation has taken a new turn with students of government colleges and those aided by it doing very well this year in the +2 exams, we must reconsider the facts prevailing in our education system. Let us remind ourselves that finally it is education alone that will be able to build a better future for the state. If that be the basis, than many arguments and questions will crop up in this discussion.  It would not be acceptable to say that the CHSE was open to bribing till last year and because of the noise generated has turned coat this time. Mandarins in these kinds of quasi independent bodies in the state machinery do not get scared easily. The next obvious question would be that, is it possible that the level of education has regressed in private institutes? That too seems very unlikely. Most lecturers have been the same. There has been no great upheaval in that sphere. Nor is it acceptable to say that quality of students has changed in private and government colleges. On closer scrutiny it would be noticed that students come from similar educational, economic and social backgrounds. On the other side of the fence, is it possible that government colleges have progressed in their abilities to impart education or have they remained static while private educational institutes have fallen behind? Scary. But it is essential that some deep investigation needs to be thoroughly done in this matter. It is not a joke that for years some people have been playing with the lives of tens of thousands of students in one particular type of institutes. Now those same jokers have started playing with the lives of another huge group of students just so that they could save their own hide. Ignoring to delve into details and not getting facts out will be a catastrophe for the future of Orissa. Simply because, once the roar becomes a whimper, those same kinds of people will get back to their old game and the young of the state will be compelled to face a bleak future.