Contd. from previous issue
By : Ph. Nandakumar Sharma,
Joint Secretary,
Board of Secondary Education Manipur
One of the area in which Manipur can develop educational tourism is the teaching of English as foreign language. There is heavy demand for English language teachers in the South East Asian countries including China and Japan. Because of the cultural gap between the east and the west, these countries are poor in English language teaching. Moreover, the British and American native speakers also do not want to go to this region for region for teaching English because of heavy dependence on local languages. Manipuri language being a language through which most of the sounds in English language teachers provided emphasis is stressed on linguistics, speaking and listening activities. The prospect of educational tourism in Manipur can be augmented if the foreign languages of the neighboring countries are also introduced in the Manipur University and other institutes. The educational tourism will provide two way benefits to the people of Manipur by generating employment in Manipur has endowed an advantage to the people in hosting the educational tourism for the neighboring counties. Manipur can become the best place for school education and higher studies for the neighboring countries if world class building s and infrastructure are developed. Not only in general education, advance technical education and art and culture education, education in healthcare will attract many foreign students from the South East Asian Countries.
7. University and Higher Education: University is not only a place of higher studies but also an institution which is authority in every sphere of decision making on different issues concerned with the state or the nation. It not only provides higher education in wide range of subject areas but also helps the state government in guiding for big projects for the benefit of the people. As for example, the direction to which the economy of the state should move shall be prescribed by the department of political economy and department of economics of the university. In the developed countries universities play a vital role in spreading advanced and higher technical education and in the act of taking major decision on different issues concerned with the state or the central government. The university is the place where all the innovations are carried out. In university and higher education stage, the subjects which were introduced in the secondary and higher secondary stages are expanded into full grown subject for further research for future generations to come. In Manipur, the scope of higher and technical education at present is litter better than the traditional subjects which are out dated and have no place in the society. It is no wonder the very few students come for admission to some of the subjects like the M.A. Mathematics and philosophy because of the unpopularity of the subject and its lack of applicability in the society. The traditional colonial system of education makes a man either to become a teacher or a clerk. But both the teaching profession and the clerical job are limited and has its own time limit. This is why there is unexpectedly educated unemployed youths in today society. Here, university and higher education will enable to switch over from the traditional path to more meaningful future course of life to the people. It is suggested that more emphasis is to be given in opening the subject areas in which there is greater demand for job and further studies. Our youths are endowed with the potential in Art and culture sports and information technology. Manipur has successfully sustained in its entertainment industry by digitalizing the film industry. Unfortunately there is no place in the university and higher education in this field. If introduced, Manipur will be another Moliwood for digital world as rightly reported in the Times of India sometimes back. The role to be played in guiding the people in the wake of the Look East Policy of the Government of India is solely in the purview of the university and higher education in Manipur. In this regard, the new policy of education should propose for established of a Department of South East Asian Studies in the university level. All the research papers/thesis submitted in the Manipur University be published by the Government for constituting a knowledge bank and should be opened to the general public and students for future reference. (To be contd……..)
