By Ranjona Banerji
Of all the news stories that have grabbed our attention in the last few days – the inexplicable cult at Mathura being top of the list – one has stood out as an example of media overreach, to me at least.
At first glance, you might consider the TV interviews with students from Bihar who “topped†their Class XII a great scoop of a story. By demonstrating on camera how little these students know about the subjects they studied – prodigal science for political science which is about cooking, not knowing the connection between H2O and water – this report proved that exam results are likely fudged, that undeserving students become “toppersâ€, that the Bihar education system is in the doldrums. The photograph of parents, friends and relatives scaling up the walls of a building in which exams are being held to help students cheat comes to mind.
But you probe a little deeper and what has this “expose†achieved but to publicly humiliate young people who are themselves the victims of a system. There may have been many ways to do the same story without making nationwide laughing stocks out of these students. Their public takedown is going to live on the internet forever. It could be argued that the students were intimidated by TV cameras, that their minds went blank at the excitement of being interviewed for their “achievementsâ€, it could be that they were genuinely ignorant. To me at least the journalists posing the questions sounded very intimidating and judgmental. A set-up most likely.
And since when is either ignorance or stupidity such a big crime? The bigger criminal to me seems to be the education system that they went through. Why not put the teachers and examiners through the same TV interview test as these students.
There was also an underlying tone to the first story and several subsequent ones that the education system in Bihar was particularly to blame. But come on. Almost every state and central education system is faulty, destroyed by political will and administrative apathy. First tackle why such a small percentage of every budget is spent on education and then have some national chest-beating on the stupidity of students.
But as every journalist with half a conscience knows, no one is really interested in such stories. And in a typical inversion of logic, we spend much time and effort on higher education, asking for more and more. But without sound primary and secondary education, what else will you get but duffers? Again, we in the media will focus on scores and toppers and when we go beyond that, we make students the target of our scorn.
A short visit to village schools in India will demonstrate that often it is a miracle that anyone gets educated at all. One teacher for all classes who usually hasn’t been paid for months, if the students are lucky two teachers, teachers who have to make the mid-day meal so cannot teach, toilet blocks which are blocked and locked, no equipment, buildings which most likely have no chairs, tables, windows and doors.
I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite about this. There is nothing wrong with journalists putting people on the block. But there is a difference between being tough with the head of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Raj Thackeray, which as we saw with Times Now does not really happen, and taking on some poor kids.
Here’s a welcome follow-up story from The Indian Express, which underlines the cruelty of this “exposeâ€:
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/a-child-who-faces-camera-for-the-first-time-can-get-nervous-bihar-topper-ruby-rais-grandfather-2836594/
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As a last comment, as a person who conducted entry level tests and interviews for journalists in more than one newspaper, do I have some stories to tell about the stupidity of journalists! O boy!