With the waning of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools across Meghalaya have reopened for all age groups but students have sometimes experienced rude shocks on reaching school as they are confronted by classrooms that have been left in disarray and with many teachers absent after two years of the pandemic.
This matter was raised in the Assembly today with several legislators speaking at length on the subject.
Selsella MLA Ferlin CA Sangma of the National People’s Party (NPP) said that 23 schools in her constituency do not have teachers as those that were employed there previously were under contractual basis. Government rules mandating that teachers clear Meghalaya Teacher Eligibility Test (MTET) and the still ongoing process in appointing 184 teachers for Dadenggre sub-division were to be blamed, she added.
Ferlin stated that 90 per cent of schools are in a bad condition akin to cow sheds and this is not conducive for study.
Gambegre MLA Saleng Sangma of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) stated that the prolonged closure of schools meant that infrastructure, including desks and benches, have been stolen, destroyed or fallen into disrepair within his own constituency.
“As a local legislator I have addressed the issue according to my capacity but to provide for more than 100 villages is difficult,” he said.
From the opposition benches, Mawsynram MLA Himalaya Shangpliang of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said that lower primary school buildings in his constituency are in dilapidated condition.
TMC leader Dr Mukul Sangma called for the government to take interim measures and find substitute teachers while the appointment process is running.
To this, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui would not agree as, he said, the government would rather find a permanent solution and not a stopgap measure though the appointment of teachers cannot be sorted immediately, though it should be complete in a month’s time.
Dr Sangma, who said that there is a school in East Garo Hills that has not had teachers for a whole year, called on the minister to conduct a district-wise review to understand the extent of the problem.
“Since we know that the process of recruitment will take time, are students supposed to go to schools without teachers in the classroom?” he queried.
