The educational system has strayed from its core principles, which is the welfare and future of students, in the last 50 years, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said today.
Sangma was speaking as the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the year-long centenary jubilee celebrations of Laban Bengalee Higher Secondary School in the presence of Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma.
Addressing the gathering, the CM congratulated the school on its historic milestone.
Speaking about the sector’s straying principles, Sangma said that all decisions should prioritise what is best for the students.
Talking about the complex nature of Meghalaya’s education sector, he said that the state has over 55,000 teachers and close to 15,000 schools and educational institutes.
“The challenges of managing schools with varying student-teacher ratios – some with few students and several teachers and some with hundreds of students but a handful of teachers – is one of the many challenges,” he said and informed that the government is forced to take tough decisions to merge or close down non-performing institutions.
Praising his own government, he said that education is a top priority for his administration and the Education Department in the last six years has emphasised student-centric decision making.
“Government funds meant for education were often misused until recently but now we have directed them towards improving infrastructure in government schools,” he added.
Other funds collected for education had previously gone unused until 2019 and the government has now channelised the resources collected in the form of cess towards repairing and constructing educational infrastructure benefiting government schools across the state.
Talking about the National Education Policy 2020, he spoke at length on the need for colleges to offer a broader range of courses, necessitating additional resources and infrastructure and the financial implications of about Rs 400-500 crore.
Earlier the CM felicitated the toppers of the school in different MBOSE examinations and also released the jubilee souvenir and a book edited by the school managing committee’s president.
