By Melarbor L Thabah
The Education Department is the most complex department of all the 45 departments such as the different types of teachers, schools, modes of funding and their problems. I am suggesting reforms for improvement to be undertaken by the Education Department.
The Meghalaya School Education Act, 1981 has no amendments and has failed to adapt to the changing times in this millennia. It must be amended in its entirety with Section 7 and 30 in particular being amended totally to not allow an individual to make decisions but for the Department to take the decision collectively. The State Education Commission should spell out its aims for what it was established, its priority areas, who’s who in its website, the suggestions it received and accepted in 2023 and its achievements from 2023-25 by evincing transparency. It should address teacher and school classification, salary issues and minimal bureaucratic involvement. There must be a “15-yearmoratorium”depending on the population increment; on the setting up of “all” types of new schools (Private, Community, Religious, Government)pan Meghalaya so that the department can focus on these current schools that exist to find ways to improve on the existing schools. By allowing new schools to be formed, one will never be able to focus on the existing problems the education sector faces but only multiplying the problem. Presently, there are many existing schools with smaller numbers of students. The present number of schools in Meghalaya today is more than sufficient to accept all students. Education is not business and we cannot play with the lives and future of the nation.
Closure – Merging – Upgradation of schools after 53 years is necessary to either to close and merge or upgrade to Class 10 or 12, the LP- UP Schools. There are too many LP-UP schools with overall low criteria on assessment. Presently, there are always schools within a 1 Km radius which have up to Class 10 or 12 with the socio-physical infrastructure to subsume LP- UP schools. Schools in this generation should be from Nursery to Class 10 or 12. Secondary Schools of all types usually seen in the district headquarters especially Shillong have good infrastructure and services schools yet low student number and admission necessitating closure and merger. The selected donor secondary schools for merger can opt to merge or be converted to purely higher secondary schools or colleges with government help in teachers’ salary. With the high pass percentage in matriculation and 12, higher secondary schools and colleges are needed. Hence, Conversion is logical to accommodate the high number of students who passed out. The government can decide how many recipient schools can exist within 1 Km radius taking the population into consideration. Criteria that recipient merged schools should have over other schools are: – (i). Better overall performance, (ii). Absorb requisite number of students in spacious classrooms, (iii). Good overall infrastructure, (iv). Better teaching on all subjects, (v). Better student – teacher ratio cum attendance than others. If the nearby school (s) has space but not the capacity to subsume, the government can provide grants to enhance or make rooms to enable the merger for completion in less than a year. Merging (donor-recipient) can be carried out for schools who get government support for teacher’s salary and infrastructure with grant discontinuation for schools which resist merging. Merging of the closed donor schools with recipient “government schools” is preferred because of the low student fees. If the recipient merged school is not a government school, the students’ fees must be subsidized, using the grants of the closed donor merged schools if the school fee of the recipient merged school(s) is higher than that of the previous school. This subsidy is worth it since the government would not have to spend any more on the infrastructure of the closed LP-UP-Secondary schools. The teachers of these schools can be merged with the recipient schools or transferred nearby but will continue to get their salary from their respective account head till their retirement. Closure and Merging of schools reduce the existing excessive number of schools found lacking in overall quality and enable the department to ameliorate the existing recipient merged schools’ socio-physical infrastructure like water, power, toilet, drainage, hygiene, safe buildings, spacious classrooms, computers, library and playground. All the problems that we are facing now are because there are too many schools. By retaining and not merging the existing number of schools present, problems will persist sans improvement.
The department should aim to have one Residential School with top quality per Block in all 56 blocks. A state that invests huge sums of money, knows the aims and priority areas in education to pinpoint focus will rise in the socio-economic status, becomes rich and prosperous. Teachers must be sent for regular training to upskill their teaching techniques across all areas. The syllabus of the MBOSE should be exactly as the CBSE syllabus to keep abreast the education standard with the national standard. For this, NCERT books fundamental for civil services exams must be made compulsory from Class 1 to 12 for all schools and streams at the higher secondary level. Private books must be discontinued for all subjects’ bar none. Supportive supervision by school officials at the block and district level with prescribed formats is vital for evaluating the overall performance and quality. For this to be effective, there must be Monthly, Quarterly BMC and DMC review meetings of all schools within the block-district based from reportive submission from the block with visits once per quarter on low performing schools for improvement or nil improvement warranting their closure. Annual review and evaluation of schools by the BMC, DMC, DC’s Office and Directorate on Enrollment, Student – Teacher attendance, School Management, Mid-day meal, Board -Report card results for all classes, Regular scholarships for schools in remote areas, Low, Medium & High dropout classification per year for overall evaluation must produce effective results just like health reviews carried out monthly, quarterly and annually yielded effective results.
The “High Dropout” reasons are constant failure in every class, overage when compared with the Class that they should be in and poverty. To reduce dropout rate there should be no more failing of students till Class 8 to achieve 100% literacy because by Class 8, all students will know how to read, write, plus, minus, divide and multiply. This can be achieved by having five to six internal tests per subject in a year taking the best of 5 per subject with marks being accounted for the final result that even if the student fails the final exam, then he will be promoted to Class 8 which adheres to the right to education till 14 years of age. I strongly feel that there should be no more failing till class 8.
To reduce rural – urban migration since a huge amount of money has to be spent by rural parents there must be one arts and commerce college per block with no subjects that requires practical since separate rooms will be needed requiring more spending. With time, practical subjects can be incorporated. It is my firm belief that just as there is one CHC per block, so should there be one college per block. The government should support gainful employment as per their designation when with respect to the lecturer’s salary and job security. Hence, more investment in higher education for the state’s overall prosperity.
To deal with the mental– stress issues facing students, counsellors should be called for teacher training in mental health. Privatization of colleges must not be allowed because being a poor NITI Ayog assessed state, 90% of students coming from low – medium income parents who had to work multiple jobs to earn a meagre salary to send their kids to college which makes graduation inaccessible. Privatization creates less qualified contractual professors at the cost De-sanctioning nationally qualified UGC posts, grant in aid colleges will no longer be able to serve disadvantaged youths, private colleges will operate sans accountability, college managements will be money driven, merit in lieu for money, the rich will be able to afford education while the poor are completely left out creating an unequal society leading to a lot college dropouts. Regular events, high tickets, mandatory costumes, rampant projects, monetary fines in schools must all be banned. When the school starts and exam ends class wise; must be regulated.
