The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, December 11, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I L B A G

Have administrators on contract too!

The UGC programme aimed at contractualisation of the teaching jobs is, in its essence, an attempt to find an answer to a charitable question in the thick of market consciousness and a world dominated by the corporate philosophy of the hardsell. It is really lamentable that standards in educational institutions have been falling and a situation has arisen, when people have openly started questioning the system by quoting from the practical options of a teacher’s life. Service in a government school or a college and education of children from a private school. Punjab Minister Surinder Singla, while participating in a seminar at Amritsar, held the teachers responsible for the problems they are facing now, particularly the concept of privatisation of which this contractualisation is the beginning.

But is contractualisation or privatisation the answer? If it is merely because of the rot in the system that it is being sought to be contractualised, then, with due apology, I must say not only education, people in the administration also need to be put on contract.

Our economy and even our moral environment has been severely tested under the leadership and guidance of inept men in the administration and in seats of political power. Education is on sale today. Society has been on sale for so many years. Administrative, judicial, political positions had been sold shamelessly in the past. The state is suffering today because of political bungling, religious interference and inbuilt weaknesses in the system which helped the players at the helms.

It is a pity that society is blaming the teachers for the rot in society. And, therefore, they must be made to pay by always keeping them on their tenterhooks.

I must caution people holding corporate consciousness that teachers dealing with human minds should not be equated with managers working in the corporate sector where success is measured only in terms of the monetary gains. Teaching is a process where people are trained to give. And giving gracefully is possible only when someone has plenty of it and is willing to give. Can we force charity out of an unwilling person, always threatened with the prospect of losing his bread? And, it is a hard fact that teachers in private institutions are a highly exploited lot. Do we again want to begin from where we had started?

J.S. ANAND, Bathinda

Bhattal case

It is not clear why Agriculture Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal is running from pillar to post in the corruption case filed against her by the Punjab Government. If she is innocent, she should contest it in the court of law.

BABU SINGH, Chandigarh

Multi-level marketing

I would like to add one point to the article “Multi-level marketing writes new rules of retailing”. These schemes are simply befooling us and we are so greedy that we are filling our coffers by looting our countrymen. For example, an item having a market price of Rs 20 is sold for Rs 100 and the sellers working as pyramid are lured by commission on sale to the tune of say Rs 50 at different levels. Buyers also purchase at an astronomical price as they are lured to become sellers later and earn hefty commission.

All in the chain probably close their eyes or get blinded by the fact that the parent company earns Rs 30 in excess of normal profit in the deal. What a pity that for increasing one’s income, he knowingly sells goods to others at a high profit and the buyer also buys so that he may participate in the loot in future. Even the seller of goods consumes these goods because on these he earns commission. But both do not understand the designs of the parent company which gets a large chunk of the cake from all the consumers of goods.

RAJIV AHUJA, Parwanoo