Educational excellence?

BY SHYAM K.C.
Last week's student elections in colleges across the country were miniature versions of state and local elections. What with the political heavyweights, including ministers, joining in the canvassing campaigns, one can conclude that political parties and their leaders unabashedly use students for their political ends. The scenes we watched on television were similar to those from non-student political elections. Many campuses witnessed violence, which is never a part of free and fair election. There were also reports that attempts were made to capture ballot boxes. Counting of ballots were put off at a few campuses due to tension between student groups aligned to different political parties. The violence took a more serious turn in east Nepal when one student was killed in police firing. The state run television reported that four persons including a college principal were abducted in west Nepal. It seems for political parties, the student elections are as important as other elections in obtaining political offices and seats. No wonder there were allegations that the students who used subsidised transport and other facilities spent lots of money on elections. The open involvement of political parties in student body elections gives rise to suspicions that the aim of student elections goes far beyond improving the quality of education in colleges.
Most students go to college to pursue higher education and become able citizens of the country and the world. But there are others who, in the guise of students, are there to indulge in politics and to keep the banners of their parties afloat by winning in union elections. And this kind of student power is seen mostly in least developed countries like Nepal and also in developing countries like India. It is not that students do not take part in politics. They do. For instance, in Nepal they were active in the pro-democracy movements of 1990 and 2006. During the Vietnam War, the usually peaceful college campuses in the United States erupted against the establishment. In other countries too, students have been a potent force in the change of governments or even political system. But once these goals are achieved, the primary concern of students is education and it is here that they need to concentrate. Places of learning should be kept away from power politics. The disturbance caused by elections based on party lines cannot bode well for the future of the students. But it is true that student bodies must be elected by the students to ensure that their academic life is not marred by poor quality education, incompetent teachers, absence of extra-curricular activities, and other distractions such as unnecessary politicisation of student bodies. Student unions work for the welfare of students in their respective campuses and should try to keep politics away from academic affairs.
The way political leaders, including top Maoist ministers, went on to campaign in campuses to ensure the victory of panels loyal to their parties is a development that must be deplored in no uncertain terms. The general feeling as this writer perceived in the course of talks with ordinary people was that this kind of political interference in student affairs should not set a precedent for the future. This puts at stake academic freedom which is necessary in all academic institutions worth the name. Student unions, apart from working for the welfare of students, can help their respective institutions strengthen their reputations and stand alongside the world's best institutions so that their graduates are respected everywhere and their degrees and diplomas not considered inferior, as they are today in many countries.
Students alone cannot and should not be blamed for what has happened to our present education system. Political parties that unscrupulously use students through their student wings are more to blame. Our political parties are a bane to our students' quest for educational excellence. The parties lack vision and do not seem to realise the long term implications of their present actions. Otherwise they would not be using students for their own political ends despite knowing that students would best serve themselves, their families, their country and even their parties by concentrating on studies and on campus activities instead of party-driven student politics. Student politics during the recent elections took a violent turn. Curfew had to be imposed in some places. And votes could not be counted in a few campuses till Sunday afternoon. But this is less a reflection on the students themselves than on the parties that condone and encourage such activities. Things are not going to improve unless political parties make it a point to stay away from student affairs and not to use students in any political activities designed for short term gains. But it would be futile to expect our leaders to take decisions that would benefit the nation in the long run at the cost of their short-term party interests. But unless this kind of decision is taken by political parties, we are doomed to see students used by political parties even for petty political activities. Educational excellence will remain a distant dream for us until party politics is kept away from college campuses.