The State Cabinet on Friday approved the Mid-career sponsored courses for senior government officials to upscale the efficiency of the bureaucracy of the state.
Addressing media persons, cabinet minister and MDA government spokesperson Paul Lyngdoh said, “The Cabinet took up the item of mid-career sponsored courses for senior level officers belonging to All India Services, Meghalaya Civil Service, Meghalaya Police Service, Forest and Finance Services for toning up and upscaling the efficiency of the bureaucracy of the state, which is a very important link between the political executive and the public.”
He said in the course of the discussion, the government has also decided to encourage and incentivise the officers to continue learning by pursuing courses at various universities, which provide higher degrees and diploma courses and these will be undertaken by our officers without any dislocation from work, meaning that they will not be taking any leave in the course of the training.
“There will be no study leave, they will be in a position to undertake such courses in the weekends or post office hours,” he said.
Lyngdoh informed that these courses have been identified and they include MBA for working professionals offered by IIM Shillong, Masters in Public Policies an online course offered by the OP Jindal Global University, professional certificates programmes and data sciences and AI, also an online course offered by the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore or University of Maryland, Ph.D programme for working professionals offered by IIM Shillong and part time Ph.D for working professionals offered by Jindal Global Law Schools and IITs, executive fellow in management or Ph.D in management programmes offered by IIMs.
To incentivise these officers, Lyngdoh said that the state government has agreed to the proposal to fund the tuition fees for the programme up to a limit of Rs 15 lakh for which there are conditions tied to it for example, the officer should have at least 7 years of service left, should undertake the course on a part time basis without any study leave and every year up to 3 officers who gained admission to a course of study approved by the government will be sponsored by the government.
A committee headed by the chief secretary will also be constituted to review and approve application of such officers.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet has also approved the draft of the Independence Day Speech highlighting the various achievements of the government since it took over