Despite the government ban, private coaching at different levels of education system is continuing unabatedly right under the nose of the authorities concerned. In order to relieve the country’s school and college going students from unbearable stress, the government issued an order in 2012 banning all kinds of private coaching.
The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) is supposed to contain private coaching at all levels. The coaching trade, however, is going on unchecked and teachers are more focused on providing private tutoring instead of teaching properly at schools and colleges. In 2012, a policy to stop the coaching trade in all public and private schools and colleges in the country.
According to sources, DSHE is not only failing to put a stop to coaching, but they are also not giving proper emphasis on the quality of education in the country. DSHE is failing to monitor schools and colleges. Furthermore, the designated officials do not have any idea about the current state of education institutions.
DSHE operates both from its central office and its district offices. There are 9 regional offices, each with a director-in-charge of operations. These offices also have an education officer and a monitoring officer. Despite having the necessary means to monitor the institutions, the employees are continuously failing to do so. The Ministry of Education and the Education Department has set many rules to ensure the quality of education in all public and private schools and colleges of the country. However, many guardians are worried that DSHE is not enforcing these rules in the educational institutions.
A guardian of a Manipur School student said that coaching has been made mandatory for many of the classes in the school. The schools and teachers have are forcing the students to pay lakhs. The same is true for many other educational institutions across the country. However, according to the government’s policy no school or college can make coaching mandatory. DSHE is not taking any steps to enforce the policy and stop the practice of mandatory coaching.
The government has given the directive to not include any book which was not set by National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) in the syllabus. But many are now trying to break these rules in order to profit off the syllabus. Note guide traders are using dishonest means to include their books in the curriculum. The guardians now have to spend more money to buy these books.
This year, almost 400 students were admitted into Viqarunnisa Noon School. There have been allegations of school authorities accepting money to admit many of these students. The same is also being said for Motijheel Ideal School. Many are paying to get admitted to these schools. DSHE is overlooking these issues by forming an unsuccessful investigation committee.
To ease the sufferings of the teachers, the government has decentralized MPO recruitment. But this proved to be ineffective as different level officials are being accused of corruption, especially field officers. According to sources, interested teachers have to give money to the head teacher for MPO recruitment. Several officials are also being accused of accepting bribes during MPO recruitment. The total amount often comes to around 50 thousand to 1 lakh for the position of MPO.
DSHE is also failing to stop educational institutions from taking high tuition fees, exam fees, admission fees, etc. Many guardians have tried to complain to the officials and but with no results. DSHE’s former Director General Prof Noman Ur Rashid said that, the district and upazila employees must monitor the schools and colleges. He said that the ministry can take necessary steps against DSHE Director General if he fails to carry out monitoring and other responsibilities.
DSHE’s Director General Prof Dr Syed Md Golam Faruk said that the coaching trade has not been shut down 100 percent, but the field officers are now monitoring the situation.
