Skip to main content

White elephants of governments



There is an amusing report in today’s New Indian Express [Kochi edition, 9 July,2022]. It says that the government schools as well as government-aided schools in Kerala are running short of students. This is not news, really. This has been happening in the state for decades. All the people of Kerala who can afford the fees send their children to private schools for the simple reason that they are English medium and maintain far better standards of education though the teachers there are paid a pittance. This is what amuses me. Those teachers who really slog carry home ridiculous pay packets at the end of the month, while those in the government and aided schools who are paid enormous sums do almost nothing!

I have been living in Kerala now for seven years. My observation is that most government establishments in Kerala do nothing worthwhile. Go to a government office to get some work done and you will feel as if you are a beggar in the state. Government employees in Kerala think they are appointed by none less than God and they carry a divine mandate to harass people like wanton boys do to helpless flies. [I have had humiliating treatments even from the staff who collect taxes and bills in government offices. Now I pay all such things online and stay far from government staff.]

A lion’s share of the Kerala government’s revenue is spent on these employees (to pay their salaries, perks and pensions) who do hardly any work sincerely (unless they are bribed). The most ludicrous irony is that the teachers of the government and aided schools in Kerala don’t send their own wards to their own schools. These children study in private schools. What better proof for the redundancy of these schools where the government invests bulk of its revenue?

Kerala is notorious for such stealing from the public coffers. Every MLA in the state appoints all his relatives and friends and their relatives and friends in some place or another which gives them government salaries for a few years after which they will be entitled to state pensions. Where on earth will an employee get lifelong pension from the state after serving for two years except in Kerala?

I left Kerala as a young man and found a job in Meghalaya because I couldn’t get a decent job in the state as I had no influential people in politics or religion to promote me. [Ok, even that job in Shillong was a gift of some religious friends!] Today the youth of Kerala are leaving soon after school for other countries because they know they have no future in this state (or even in the country which is becoming increasingly sectarian).

Now, though retired officially, I teach in a private school which has over 2300 students while the government and aided schools in the locality struggle to find at least a handful of students so that the well-paid teachers there won’t feel bored without any work at all to do.

This system has to change. Why can’t the government make the state schools efficient? Why can’t the medium of instruction be changed if the people of the state want that? Why can’t the teachers be made more accountable? And there are many more questions. 

With a few former students who visited recently
[Seated are all teachers]

Comments

  1. That is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We have 1800 students in our school which is a private school, and our teachers slog like workhorses for salaries that are below the government scales. Maybe, it has much to do with job satisfaction and the feeling that they are actually making a difference to the children they teach.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Job satisfaction is certainly a great reward. But why can't government make that job satisfaction a part of the remuneration? I mean, there's something wrong here.

      Delete
  2. Hari Om
    an intriguing conundrum... one wonders if there is anywhere in the world where a state-run/funded educational system actually comes up to full standard. Even here there are issues - but more to do with not enough teachers rather students I think. Not an area I am very 'au fait' with so cannot make much more comment than this... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The situation is different there, I guess. I have seen schools here trying to ape western systems but failing to achieve any of the expected objectives. Education has to touch hearts.

      Delete
  3. That's what the situation with the both of our Telugu states,say, AP and TS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sad. We can never progress intellectually if that's the situation.

      Delete
  4. Good Article.
    Yes it's a sorry state of affairs.
    Kerala has a great potential with all the resources and talent but somehow the politics is ruining it.
    One valuable point you mentioned - Why can't the medium of instruction change? This will help the Govt schools to move forward if the Govt takes it seriously.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a powerful political lobby of teachers at work in Kerala. That lobby gets government to dance to its tunes. Even the aided school managements act in connivance with that lobby.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...