Meghalaya Pradesh Youth Congress has said that Meghalaya’s rock bottom ranking in the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2023-24, which was recently released by the Union Ministry of Education, is humiliating.
The youth Congress said the ranking exposes the utter failure of the MDA government to deliver quality education to Meghalaya’s youth.
“Our state’s poor performance is not accidental; it reflects gross mismanagement and broken promises by the current government,” Youth Congress President Timjim K. Momin said in a statement today.
He said despite countless announcements about reforms and investments, hundreds of teaching positions in schools remain vacant and many schools, particularly in rural and remote areas, lack even basic infrastructure such as electricity, toilets, proper desks, and adequate learning resources. Teacher morale continues to suffer greatly due to the absence of training, timely salaries, and professional support, he added.
“The PGI ranking is a clear verdict on this government’s failure and betrayal of our students, parents, and teachers,” Momin stated.
Momin referred to the record pass rate in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate of the Meghalaya Board of School Education and the claims that the CM Impact guidebooks boosted the pass percentage and said, “Many educationists and observers have rightly criticized this as legalised cheating because exam questions were reportedly drawn directly from the government-issued guidebooks.”
He said genuine learning outcomes and student preparedness for higher education have been compromised. The government’s misguided approach will leave thousands of students ill-equipped to face future academic and professional challenges, Momin said.
“Education crises are not merely about rankings or pass percentages—it reflects deeper systemic problems. Persistent neglect of our school infrastructure, inadequate teacher recruitment, poor teacher training, and policy confusion, particularly around the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, have severely undermined education quality,” he said.
Pointing out that the State Education Commission established in 2023 appears to be non-functional, with no public reports, no visible reforms, and no accountability for its mandate, Momin questioned its achievement or just a symbolic gesture from the government.
The youth Congress demanded accountability and asked the government to make the findings, recommendations, and actual outcomes of the commission’s work public.
It sought for an independent review of the guidebooks and to urgently invest in robust teacher training programs, fill all vacant teaching positions immediately, restore meaningful school inspections and oversight, and implement strict accountability mechanisms for the education department.
An annual “State of Education” report or white paper must be introduced, detailing the status of teacher recruitment, infrastructure improvement, fund utilization, and policy implementation, it said.
