April 2024 – Page 34 – Safir News Agency

"If Suffering Is Deemed Our Right…": More Kuki-Zo Groups Call For Election Boycott In Manipur

admin Apr 15, 2024 0

'If Suffering Is Deemed Our Right...': More Kuki-Zo Groups Call For Election Boycott In Manipur

Two “village defence volunteers” were killed in Manipur’s Kangpokpi, Kuki-Zo groups have said

Imphal/Guwahati:

The Kuki National Assembly (KNA) has condemned the killing of two “village defence volunteers” in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district on Saturday, allegedly by an armed group from the valley. The KNA appealed to the Kuki-Zo tribes not to vote in the Lok Sabha elections in protest against what it called atrocities against the tribes.

In a statement, the KNA alleged the Arambai Tenggol, supported by forces, attacked Kangpokpi’s Phailengmol area and killed the two “village defence volunteers”.

“… If suffering is deemed our right in India, then we choose not to participate in the Indian parliament elections,” the KNA said in a statement signed by its spokesperson Mangboi Haokip.

Armed groups in both sides call themselves “village defence volunteers”, a definition of the belligerents in Manipur that has become the most controversial since nothing stops these “volunteers” from killing under the insurance provided by “in self-defence”, and in the absence of any monitoring or accountability.

“It is disheartening that Indian forces, capable of preventing and countering threats from China and Pakistan, have failed to protect innocent citizens… This has led to a loss of faith in the Indian Constitution and its claim to being the world’s largest democracy,” Mr Haokip said.

“In light of the apathy shown towards the minority Kuki ethnic people in Manipur, we feel compelled to abstain from voting in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to express our anguish towards the Indian leadership,” he said.

The KNA alleged the forces gave covering fire for the Arambai Tenggol before they attacked the hill and killed the two “village defence volunteers”.

Mr Haokip alleged the bodies were mutilated and dragged on a road. Graphic visuals purportedly of this incident have appeared on social media.

“We urge every Kuki-Zo ethnic person to support the election boycott resolution passed by the Kuki Inpi Manipur and other intellectual groups. This boycott serves as a means to convey our pain and suffering to India and the world,” Mr Haokip said.

The KNA joins a long list of Kuki-Zo groups that have called a boycott of the Lok Sabha elections. The Global Kuki-Zomi-Hmar Women community, a group of Kuki-Zo women, including journalists, social workers, former Outer Manipur MP Kim Gangte and leaders of the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar women’s forums in Delhi, had written to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar informing him of their decision to boycott the polls.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Kuki-Zo group Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) said, “Central security forces are deployed to maintain peace and remain neutral, but their actions today have raised many questions ahead of the Lok Sabha election.”

Valley Civil Society Groups’ Allegations

Valley civil society organisations have made counter-allegations that farmers who had gone to the hills to collect firewood were tortured, killed and mutilated by armed groups that are holed up in bunkers.

One of them lying with his face towards the ground was hit with a spade on his neck before he was shot multiple times from point-blank range with an assault rifle, shows a purported video of the killing in January. Anyone from the valley going near the foothills for farming are shot without provocation, civil society organisations have alleged.

The ethnic violence in Manipur over cataclysmic disagreements on land, resources, political representation, and affirmative action policies has dragged on for 11 months now. Over 210 were killed in the violence and more than 50,000 were internally displaced.

Opinion: Classwork, Homework and Housework

admin Apr 15, 2024 0

The housework that a student does should also be given due academic credit as it imparts skill that forms part of learning process

Published Date – 15 April 2024, 11:56 PM

Opinion: Classwork, Homework and Housework

By KSS Seshan

The secondary school phase in the hierarchy of the educational system today is midway between the primary stage and the higher educational system. Lower Kindergarten (LKG) to 5th grade form a part of the primary level classes while 6th-10th grade comes under secondary school and above it is broadly categorised as the higher educational level. The higher educational phase has three segments. While Plus-two, also known as Intermediate, is the first, the degree course at the collegiate level is the second and the third is the postgraduate course under the University level. Of the primary, secondary and higher educational levels, secondary school has greater significance as it is the single deciding phase of the future course of education of the children.

Secondary School
When the child comes to the 6th grade, the entry point to the secondary school, s/he is generally about 10 years of age. From then on till about the 15th year, the child navigates through this phase before moving on to the Plus 2 stage. This is the stage when the child is metamorphosed into a young adult with visible signs of physical, mental and emotional transformation. The rapid growth both in physical and mental makeup also leads to psychological maturity. The child exhibits independent traits that ultimately lead to increasing individualism.

The secondary school level also witnesses a major transformation in the methods and contents of the curriculum. At the primary level, most of the learning process is around teachers and the classroom plays a pivotal role. However, at the collegiate and higher educational levels, it is more about the personal effort, interest and enthusiasm of students. Secondary schooling can broadly be said to possess three main channels of educational curriculum: classwork, homework and housework.

Classroom Learning
The teachers, unlike at the primary level, are subject specialists in secondary schools. There are separate teachers for Mathematics, Sciences and Social Studies. Classroom explanation through the teacher serves as the basis for the learning of the child, without which it will be a futile exercise for a secondary school student.

Classroom learning also involves practical classes in subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology. This reinforces the theory studied in the book and the students are endowed with greater conviction about the truth they study in the textbook. In Social Studies too, visits to historical places, public buildings and institutions help in understanding history, geography and polity better.

Homework
Divergent views have been expressed by many on the need, quantum, relevance and efficacy of homework as a part of learning that a child at the secondary school level should carry daily. The basic aim of the ‘homework’ is to reinforce and concretise the classroom work the child already is introduced to. Unfortunately, this essential purpose of homework is overlooked and “assignments” not related to the classwork are assigned to children only to keep them engaged in some activity at home.

It is well known that homework many a time turns out to be the work for the parents. The deadlines become such nightmares for students that they get frustrated, stressed, and as a few recent studies have pointed out, children tend to develop behavioural problems.

To overcome the problems of perennial homework, in recent times, technology has come in handy. Any assignment given by teachers has a solution in Google Search and students even in remote village schools are adept at making use of smartphones to do the daily dose of homework. Instant messaging, photostat making, forwarding solved formulas and sharing answers among friends etc have made homework easy, quick and efficient. Parents are happy as they are now a relieved lot. Those who have no access to smartphones and the internet are the ones who face the wrath of the teachers when they fail to do homework. The secret of doing regular homework is pasting from Google without any mental effort on the part of students.

Housework
The most contentious but generally overlooked and unrecognised task that secondary school-level students directly or indirectly engage on a daily basis is the housework. They have some obligation to attend to as a responsible growing member of the family. While in affluent families, servants may be assigned every chore, children in middle and lower-middle-class families have several odd tasks to perform on a daily basis. Starting with getting a milk packet from the nearby kiosk to dropping a guest at the bus stop, several such works are generally the duties of a schoolgoing lad. Similarly, girls are expected to help in the kitchen.

However, for children in the villages and remote rural areas, the housework they generally attend to is more intense and has a strong bearing on the family avocation. For the children in the agricultural families, for example, numerous responsibilities get lined up on each single day. It is an unwritten rule that boys and girls in the family have to clean the cowshed, feed the cattle, take them out to graze and attend to the small but constant regular tasks connected to agriculture, horticulture or animal husbandry. Similar is the case with the families of artisans, businessmen or farm hands.

The housework for an urban child as well as a rural ward though vastly varies in nature, the fact remains that the task does exist and due credit is to be given for the discharge of this task. These household works in a way equip them with practical knowledge leading to skill development in those avocations. While the project work of students, done from the readily available ‘Google’, carries a considerable credit in the evaluation of their performance, it is strange that the time, energy and interest invested in the housework by the young students go unrecognised.
In short, the housework that a student does should also be given due academic credit as it also imparts skill development that forms part of the learning process.

Educational experts and planners who gloat about the features of the New Educational Policy (NEP) should give a thought to the nature of the numerous tasks like the classwork, homework and housework that an average secondary schoolgoing student is expected to perform and due credit should be assigned to all such tasks, with a balance. The performance of the children in academics should be assessed on such multi-tasking methods and not merely on the type of answers dished out at the year-end board examinations.

Kss Seshan