Ladakhi activist calls for reforming system to eliminate corruption

Leh, Sep 21 (ANI): The recent ' fight against corruption' led by Anna Hazare, found overwhelming support from the public, civil society organisations and political parties and the issue of corruption has been brought centre-stage by this amalgamation of forces across the country.

While all the key players involved are now deliberating the structure of the Lok Pal, its ambit of influence and its own role in spearheading the movement, there are more subtle forms of corruption, which exist in regions in our country. They do not make headlines, nor are taken up by towering figures in the national capital. It is just a quiet battle.

To give an example, one can examine the process of selection of teachers in this remote region of Ladakh. The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), which is the policy making and implementation body, plays a crucial role in the selection process. Though streamlined, it still has many loopholes.

In a small place like Ladakh where everybody knows everybody else, how do such practices survive, how are the loopholes covered up? The impression is that the education system is beset by favouritism.

The impression is that favouritism is not done in an overt manner but more discreetly during selection, postings and transfers of teachers. This is detrimental to the very cause of education with teachers shying away from 'difficult' postings in remote villages in this mountainous region. The answers are not so easy and everyone involved has a stake. ne faces such problems not only in the field of education. They are endemic, reflective of society as a whole. It starts innocuously. People tend to look for contacts in government offices to address their pending matters out of turn. It could be a small matter like moving a file or a bigger one like getting a job recommendation from a personal contact.

Does Anna Hazare's movement have an answer for this?

Coming back to Education, specifically teachers' postings, the favoured ones continue to teach in schools well within 10 km of their homes while those who do not have influence are posted to far-flung areas. Typically teachers, who are posted far away from their homes for too long, tend to become despondent. Their work, even if it is very good is not appreciated, and they face neglect.

Add to that, many face the hardship of living and working in remote areas, mostly away from their families. Rinchen Angmo is posted at Kargil "I didn't mind it initially. It is my job and my husband was at home to look after our young daughter, old parents, our fields and cattle, but few months' back my husband was posted to a place 180kms away from Leh. Now who will be there to take the responsibilities at home?"

The flip side is also true. Teachers tend to bunk, and seek co-conspirators amongst their colleagues to cover up for their absences. This is inexcusable but in the Ladakhi context, it is understandable.

For instance, they may have an official holiday in the middle of the week. It would take them a day or two to reach their homes. Here they would attend to their families, their fields, their cattle. And in the process, take extra days of. The system needs to respond to these very human situations even for improving efficiency.

There are situations where the student-teacher ratio is completely lop-sided. This is typical of far-flung areas where there simply are not enough enrollments. There is nothing in the system, which factors this in and posts teachers accordingly. There could be a school with four students, having four teachers! A bizarre situation not to mention a sheer waste of resources, human and material.learly the quality of education suffers affecting the students, the future of Ladakh, a region striving to open itself to the world, to influences which could enable it to develop, to tap the human resource within which of course begins with the basic building blocks of education.

The Charkha Development Communication Network underlines the need for reform in our system to find an answer to these problems. By Stanzin Angmo (ANI)