Raising The Standard Of Education

-By Jawahar Manandhar

In the name of raising the standard of education many experiments have been made in the country in the last three decades but the fact is there for everyone concerned to feel that not a single experiment has yielded the desired result.

The semester system introduced about 30 years ago at the whim of some educationatists could not manage to function well even for a decade despite very harsh rules and regulations imposed by the State to run it successfully although the planners of the New Education Plan had only positive aspects to tell about it when it was introduced. Ultimately the planners were compelled to retreat and resort back to the old annual system which were functioning successfully since education was made available not only to the ruling class but to the general populace also.

The introduction of the National Development Scheme (NDS) for the Masters Level students which made them to go and stay for ten months in remote villages of the country too could not sustain more than a few years. Though it has many good aspects on it, such as giving a first hand knowledge to the students about the grim realities of hard life lived by our brethen all over the country was suddenly stopped only because the then rulers were afraid that the students were influencing the villagers against the System. The selfish interest of the Panchayat rulers to use the students to gain political mileage over the multiparty propounders was shattered and the so-called ‘good and development oriented’ programme met the unnatural death. There was no doubt that the NDS was introduced to take political advantage but the multiparty propounders gained the upper hand. It is but natural for the latter to use them in the Panchayat System as any sort of organized body or group was not allowed to function but it is a matter of great dismay that even after the restoration of multiparty democracy ten years ago almost all the political parties are still using the students for political use. More disturbing is the fact that these students are willingly following one party or the other, perhaps, with the fond hope that they would be rewarded with some kind of awards. The time is definitely ripe for the political leaders to let students free from being used politically and let them concentrate on their academic career.

Even if we look keeping apart the nexus between the politics and education the education sector does not look very promising so far as is standard is concerned despite the opening of numerous boarding schools and involvement of private sectors in higher education. The standard of education in private boarding schools and colleges is definitely higher than of the public ones but the question is - is the level of teaching higher in them or it has to do with the private tuitions the parents are forced to give to their wards to provide better education.

It is common knowledge that most of the students of private schools come from affluent class which some how manage to pay the exhorbitant school fees but it is also a fact that most of these students have to take tuitions too in one subject or the other. As a result the pass percentage or the marks too are higher than that of the students of public schools. Against this background a serious consideration should be given by all concerned with the quality of education to do away with the system of tuition which has in an indirect way causing a drain on the parents and lowering the standard in private ones too.

Jottings: Idle and otherwise

-BY MRJ

A write-up in The Sunday Times of London offers a revealing, even amusing, insight into how America’s enlisted men and women are giving new meaning to the term ‘comrades in arms’.

COMRADES IN ARMS: Written around a new book on women in the American armed forces — The Kinder, Gentler Military by Stephanie Gutmann — the article focuses on how, despite streams of rules about ‘fraternising’ (read sex among recruits), men and women in America’s so-called new military have made passionate love nests of armoured personnel carriers, tents and even underground bunkers.

Apparently cases of sexual harassment and rampant sex in the ranks have become increasingly acute spurred by President Bill Clinton’s drive to build an army whose diversity of race and gender makes it "look like America."

On the one hand, under the new age ethos female recruits have grown to 20 percent from 12 percent a decade ago. On the other, having successfully installed women in warships, fighter jets and ‘boot camps’, a Pentagon committee on women is pressing for their right to serve in submarines.

More specifically, the committee is demanding that the navy refurbish the submarine fleet, building female-friendly craft with separate bunks and bathrooms guaranteeing privacy for women.

Not surprisingly, the admirals, one is informed, are not amused. One obvious reason for their ire is cost. "Beyond the enormous cost involved — submarines would have to be lengthened at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars — commanders fear that mixing women with men for weeks on end in the fight confines of a submarine would create a hotbed of hormonal conflict."

Thus, "male submarine commanders can only shudder at what the military’s sexual arbiters would make of an environment in which corridors are so narrow that crew members cannot pass each other without touching."

While several actual cases of promiscuous behaviour between comrades in arms have been documented, one is also reminded of two well publicised events: the dismissal of Lt. Kelly Flinn, the airforce’s first female bomber pilot, on adultery charges and the sentencing of a male sergeant on 19 counts of rape.

Interestingly, in some units "simply looking at a woman for more than three seconds can be deemed harassment."

Interesting, too, is that these days accommodating pregnancy has become such a priority in the forces that "women sent home to give birth even before the Gulf war began were awarded medals along with combatants."

With as much as 20 percent of all recruits in the armed forces being female, it is no wonder that at American bases special exercise classes are held for pregnant soldiers.

What particularly worries military planners are lower training standards evolved to accommodate women. Gutmann indeed makes a powerful point when she says: "When we are involved again in a real war, the fiercer, angrier, most blood-lusting force will win."

And that, very simply, is not a description of America’s new age military!

MISCELLANY: According to a news item, most Japanese husbands remain unwilling to perform household chores (sounds familiar, eh?) and wives are getting more fed up (anyone surprised?).

That bit of trivia comes off a government-sponsored survey. But why, you might ask, should the Japanese government bother about such things? That is because experts say differing attitudes about the roles of men and women have prompted many Japanese women to delay getting married and having children.

That’s why, one is told, that the fall in the birth rate to record lows has prompted the government to seek ways to make life easier for women. Ah, so ney.

Now, over to Singapore, where lawmakers have recently suggested that more babies must be produced in a big hurry via social programmes nudging women to turn back from careers to family.

No wonder, then, that The Straits Times grimly warned: "A country that cannot reverse a dropping fertility rate is effectively committing collective suicide."

Meanwhile in Beijing, concerns have been stoked regarding the reproductive problems of a different sort — that of the panda. The problems in that esoteric area stem not from an inability to mate, on the panda’s part, nor from mating too quickly — but from not being interested in sex.

That has prompted moves to show pandas instructional mating videos and to panda research centres in establishing sperm banks for China’s animal emblem. Well, well, well.

PROVERBS FOR A NEW AGE: The next lovely bit is extracted from a local newspaper: Home is where you hang your @. The email of the species is more deadly than the mail. You can’t teach a new mouse old clicks. Pentium wise, pen and paper foolish.

The modem is the message. Too many clicks spoil the browse. The geek shall inherit the earth. Don’t byte off more than you can view. Fax is stranger than fiction. Windows will never cease. Virtual reality is its own reward. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to use the internet and he won’t bother you for weeks. And there’s no place like your homepage. Wow, that’s pretty cool, wouldn’t you say?