SPECTRUM ECSTACY AND AGONY OF SECMOL (part II)
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end-II ECSTACY AND AGONY OF SECMOL
By Sonam Chosjor
Double Standard of the Ladakhi Leaders The deeds of SECMOL and Sonam
Wangchuk were very much hailed by the Ladakhi leaders untill very
recently:
· Thupstan Chhewang, the present MP from Ladakh and the ex Chief
Executive Councilor (CEC), said in an interview to the magazine Down
to Earth (Nov. 2003): "SECMOL has shown us the way." · Chering
Dorjary, the present CEC, Leh, in a letter dated 18 July 2006, hailed
"SECMOL's effort in the ... education reform movement to strengthen
government school system in Leh ..." and "for constituting Village
Education Committees in all villages". He also requested SECMOL, in
the same letter, to continue its "support to the Hill Council in
future also by providing ... expertise in teachers training and
mobilizing VECs ... to help achieve the goals envisaged in the Ladakh
Model of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan".
· Rigzin Spalbar, the previous CEC of Leh Hill Council, in a letter
dated 15 August 2005, expressed his appreciation for Wangchuk's
"remarkable contribution in drafting the Vision Decrement for Ladakh",
which was tittled Ladkah 2025: A Roadmap for Progress and Prosperity.
· Asgar Ali Karbalai, CEC Kargil, in a letter dated 12 Aug 2005,
sought the "expertise and service" of Sonam Wangchuk and SECMOL to
help improve the education system in Kargil district.
· I have seen many other high profile leaders of Ladakh hailing Sonam
Wangchuk as one of the most visionary persons in Ladakh.
Now, very surprisingly, these leaders who used to speak very high of
SECMOL and Sonam Wangchuk have gone deaf and blind in the hours of his
crisis. It appears now that the contribution of the man and his
organization has become totally irrelevant for them because someone in
authorities has called him 'antinational'. But why? It's not difficult
to answer: Unfortunately, the leaders are too much conscious of their
political equations, powers and privileges that they have preferred to
be mute spectators to the forced end of an era of education reform in
Ladakh. Education, which is an issue of great significance for the
common masses, has no priority in their scheme of things. What they
prioritize is their vote bank politics with the help of every possible
means-communal clashes, agitations etc. Agony of SECMOL Despite the
dramatic improvement brought about by SECMOL in the education system
of Ladakh, many people criticize it on the basis of propagandas and
rumors spread by some vested interest elements against it.
Constructive criticism is always a healthy sign of a democratic
society. However, when criticism is just for the sake of criticism, or
for some personal or parochial interests, it hurts the society at
large. Moreover, when criticism comes from everybody who is nobody,
and not from anybody who is somebody, it hurts the most. The following
facts also add to the agony of SECMOL:
· Because of the kind of reform it is indulged in, SECMOL has nothing
tangible to show the people in terms of the work it has done is the
last 19 years- not because it has done nothing. Education reform (or
for that matter any social reform) is such a thankless job in which
one has to wait for decades to show some tangible and concrete
results. It's not like a bridge or road constructed with the patronage
of a politician which are visible to the common people overnight.
· Some officials of the education department and teachers are now also
against SECMOL because the reform it brings in the education system
hurts the vested interests. The change of status quo through a reform
movement always hurts those who benefits from the present system. In
our present education system, the insincere teachers and officials
tend to benefit from the lack of a proper mechanism to enforce
transparency. The vested interest teachers (of course not all the
teachers) today stand against SECMOL because one of its goal is to
enforce transparency in the education system as a part of the broader
agenda.
· All the propagandas against SECMOL are being planned and executed in/
or around Leh town by many vested interest elements having no stake in
the government schools because their children study in lucrative
private school. Closure of SECMOL to them, and of course to the
leaders (who generally strategize and operates their political games
from Leh), does not matter too much: only the innocent people of rural
areas, whose children study in the govern ment schools, will be the
biggest losers.
· The common villagers, who have the biggest stake in the survival of
SECMOL, are too innocent and voiceless to take a collective and
spontaneous mass action to save the movement. Even if they try to let
their stand know, they are suppressed.
· Unfortunately, for the leaders of the Ladakh Buddhist Association
(LBA), the Ladakh Muslim Association (LMA), the Ladakh Union Territory
Front (LUTF) and the Indian National Congress (INC), it takes only a
communal issue to mobilize people, not a serious issue like education.
The end of a Golden Era?
SECMOL has announced its closure for the lack of support from the
local government and local leaders, and for the high-handedness of the
District Administration. With this an era of a golden reform in
education, which showed great promise and potential to the common
people of Ladakh, will come to an end. Unfortunately, this situation
has come because of a few black sheep; and more unfortunately, Ladakhi
leadership did not try to save it. Will the leaders and the future
Hill Council Governments in Ladakh be able to fill up the vacuum
created by SECMOL and carry forward its wonderful vision? This is a
million dollar question. Given the apathetic and lethargic attitude of
the leaders, it would not be wrong to be pessimistic.
Whatever the post-SECMOL era has in store for the future of education
in Ladakh, this is not the way SECMOL should have ended its marvelous
work. Even if it is on the verge of leaving its vision half-finished,
it deserves a great farewell and a huge applause.
Given the political state of affairs in Ladakh as it is now, the
difficult task of saving SECMOL appears to boil down to the person who
is the most improbable to do it: the DC. However, given the larger
interest of the common people, it would be pertinent for the DC to
forget his personal grudge against Wangchuk and take a cursory glance
at what SECMOL has done over the last 19 years to change the face of
education system in Leh; and then settle the issue once and for all.
Otherwise the poor people will always curse him in the future for his
miss-deeds.
*(The author is a Ph. D. student in the PG Department of Political