Shillong, Nov 12: Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui today convened a meeting of the Higher Education Council to review the issues relating to higher education in Meghalaya.
Rymbui said that when the State Higher Education Council was set up in 2018 there were many recommendations and this review meeting was to see how the issues have progressed and what more is to be done.
“As a government we wanted to review the quality of education and its accessibility,” Rymbui said.
The minister said that one of the key issues discussed at the meeting was the state’s high dropout rate, which can often be ascribed to the issue of accessibility.
Very often, rural villages will have a primary school but not a high school, meaning that students who wish to pursue their education after the primary level have to travel farther, leading some to drop out. Livelihood is another issue, with many youngsters dropping out of school to provide for their families, as well as the cost of education, he added.
On the issue of accessibility, the government over the last seven years has been trying to do as much as possible for the students at the higher education level, Rymbui said, adding that Meghalaya now has its own Engineering College, State University and colleges in various parts of the state funded by the state government.
“So, we are moving in the right direction and we are trying to give accessibility to students,” Rymbui pointed out.
He also said that during the meeting there was a discussion on the gap between higher education and the undergraduate level.
He pointed out that this issue has also been addressed with the government upgrading all the secondary schools to the higher secondary schools this year and more streams have also been introduced at the higher secondary level.
Govt to push colleges on NAAC accreditation
The State Higher Education Council today discussed the issue of NAAC accreditation.
Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui pointed out that only 25 colleges in the state are currently accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
“If we can give quality education we want the remaining 71 colleges in the state, whether aided or private, to also be NAAC accredited,” the minister said, adding that the government would encourage colleges that have not submitted themselves for assessment to do so at the earliest.
Rymbui also informed that, at the meeting, there was a discussion on the setting up of a state level assessment committee.
“We will recommend to the government that this committee is important for the benefit of the students,” he said.
He also said that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was discussed, specifically the directives that all teachers will have to have cleared the four-year Integrated Teaching Education Programme (ITEP) by 2030 and that there should be no standalone institutions.
“We have decided to cluster these institutions with the nearby government colleges,” Rymbui added.
