Agents of change

EDITORIAL

The Maoist fighters are again up in arms this time around about the alleged involvement of their commanders in financial irregularities. This is indeed a serious matter because they are raising voice agains the misuse of funds meant for the cantonments and former fighters provided by the state or rather the taxpayers’ money. This shows how pervasive corruption is in the Maoist party for it is gross abuse of public resources by the party leaders for political financing and funding elections. Most of the other political parties too have yet to show transparency. Some measures are in order to deal with the rampant corruption that continues to plague the political parties, and the Maoists are now seen to be the most corrupt to the extent that the leadership is exploiting their cadres without qualms. Robust constitutional mechanisms and checks and balances could figure as some of the essential steps to deal with corrupt practices. This is so for constitutional procedures and mechanisms help ensure results “for the people”. In this case, these institutions would have to be empowered and efficient.

It goes without saying that these need to be independent and the constitutional procedures and mechanisms should operate from within and there ought to be no interference from the outside. They should be in force without further delay seeing how transparency is not in evidence in many transactions. In the case of the claim the Maoists fighters make, there could be financial misappropriation of funds amounting to billions of rupees. What can be done is to have transparency, oversight mechanisms and punishment mechanisms that would work in controlling corruption. It must be emphasized that corruption and abuse of power must be promptly punished no matter who the guilty is and what post he or she holds. This would also make necessary an enabling environment and basis for economic growth in the absence of graft. The private sector would grow if the government provides the right environment and adequate infrastructure with a good policy environment and adequate infrastructure for economic activities.

Meanwhile, state mechanisms and vigorous judiciaries deliver justice and rule of law. The judiciary is relatively independent, but state mechanisms need to be able to deliver justice and rule of law. There is every need to have a strong independent and capable judiciary. The political parties and vested interests should be unable to influence the course of law, and institutions and individuals reluctant to deliver the rule of the law have to be punished. Another important aspect is that the reforms in political parties should be carried out so that the means of coming to power is not compromised. It should be mandatory for the political parties to adopt financial transparency and democratic decision-making processes. Here, the relevant rules and regulations should be put in place. The absence of these mechanisms has only incited corrupt practices by the political parties and those with vested interests. Implementing the stated mechanisms would help to deal with graft-many of them in high places.

Training teachers

Trained teachers can make a whole lot of difference to the way they impart education, especially to the school children. There is a provision of providing training to community school teachers by the National Centre for Educational Development (NCLD), and the results seem to reflect this aspect in the performance of the students. Now, the five-day training to the teachers of the institutional schools has also been initiated by the NCLD. This is a welcome step as trained teachers will be able to contribute in enhancing the learning of the school children.

In the backdrop of the public school teachers having received the training, the performance of the private school teachers is also bound to become better. Considering it is their formative years, the school children require guidance for which teachers who are trained will be better equipped to deliver the best. That the government has taken this step shows that theoretically the government is concerned about quality education, but on many fronts its action speaks otherwise. The private schools too must organise training for their teachers for better performance from the students.