PUNISHMENT FOR HARDWORK???

Kerala Govt. under the rule of V.S.Achuthananthan is proving to be yet another of the useless governments for Kerala, like the one's we usually have.(Of course there had been a decision to introduce GNU/Linux at schools instead of Windows which is a great move indeed.) I don't remember Kerala ever having a Govt of which the people were proud of. The present Govt.'s main fall have been in the educational field. M A Baby, Education Minister, has made too many changes in this field of which none were in the positive direction as far as I can make out.



The very first year M.A.Baby came to power, the results which came out was quite magnificent. The pass percentage was way over the usual. All channels were filled with our honorable educational minister telling how he changed the whole 'setup' of education to increase the results. But the secrets couldn't been hidden for long. Soon it began leaking out. There were clear orders given from the educational dept to increase the marks of each student however bad they have written the exams. I personally know a teacher who went to correct the paper. She said that it was a very difficult scenario. They got to give marks to the students but can't find a single praiseworthy word in the whole paper. The actual marks of the students would be the one they got minus about 20%. I also remember about one of my neighbour who, on the day before results, was dreading it cause he/she might fail in it. After the results came he/she was very sad cause the marks were only 80%. This happened in the coming years too. I remember seeing a letter written by someone to a newspaper which can be roughly translated as, "I am unlucky to not have been able to study during this golden period of education. I was forced to quit studies after I failed in my 10th 15 years back. Had M.A.Baby been the minister then, I could even have got a Ph.D."

Then on the year when my entrance exams took place(2007), there were all kinds of problems with the management colleges which delayed our admission. The govt. was against the Management colleges because they were asking for higher fees. The govt remained strong against the management but in the end they succumbed to it. After a press conference, a news reported asked our honorable minister, what was the use of this fight against the management and was there any use of it? The Minister got angry and said, "The management has signed with us to give 50% of their seats at low fees". He then walked out. Please remember that till then the management had been giving 50% seats at low fees itself. I don't know whether they had signed it or not. But after all its the no.of seats on govt. fees that matter, not any signatures.

Now comes the most interesting decision. M A Baby has decided to discontinue the Onam exams. While I was in school Onam exams, christmas exams and final exams were the three main exams that were there. These exams made us revise the topics we learned. And after the hard work during the exam time, the vacation was very enjoyable. I must admit I don't know the reason for stopping Onam exams. But whatever they are, I am sure they are not enough to challenge the positives of it.

And this weekend I saw on paper that M.A.Baby is going to punish all the schools where exams were held prior to Onam. Conducting an exam is not at all easy. It requires hard work from students part and also the teachers part. Setting the paper, finishing portions, conducting exams and correcting the answer paper. If a school is ready to conduct an exam without compulsion, I feel its a thing which should be appreciated, not punished.

I think the only reason for this punishment would be that the honorable Educational Minister has decided to pass all the students this year. So studying or sample exams will be most unnecessary. "Come see the questions of which the answers you don't know, write something you know and pass all exams" - looks like this is the present educational motto for our government.