EXCLUSIVE
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Shillong, March 9: Meghalaya’s Education Minister, Rakkam A. Sangma, stated that the state government has written to the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to seek exemptions from certain criteria to increase the intake capacity for B.Ed. and D.El.Ed. courses.
Talking to Meghalaya News 24, the Education Minister said, “We have written to NCTE to exempt some criteria so that we can intake more B.Ed. courses and be it D.El.Ed., be it DIET in the B.Ed. college,” said Sangma. He highlighted that Meghalaya currently has only 200 vacancies for the D.El.Ed. training program and a severe shortage of training schools. “However, we are continuously giving orientation short-term training, but that is not recognisable to NCTE.”
Addressing concerns over the state’s 18,000 untrained teachers, Sangma acknowledged the challenge of NCTE certification. “Look, practically they are trained. Many of the teachers who teach syllabus are practically trained—six months course, first three months course—but technically, they are not trained because those training are to be certified by the NCTE,” he explained.
The Minister also spoke about the initiatives taken to improve education quality in Meghalaya. “Science and mathematics teachers of the state are getting training in IIT Guwahati,” he noted, adding that such training programs include residential programs and special training camps.
Regarding Meghalaya’s standing in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Sangma admitted, “Look, I don’t know much about the structural criteria of the NIRF ranking, but as a state government, we are doing all our efforts to give quality education at all levels—from primary to higher education.” He pointed out that Meghalaya has established its first state university and has several private and central universities contributing to education development.
On infrastructure, he acknowledged that while some reports indicate an excess of schools at the primary and upper primary levels, the government is taking corrective measures. “In the last five-six years, under the dynamic leadership of the Chief Minister, we have constructed many new government schools, renovated more than 2,000 schools, and built many government secondary and higher secondary schools, as well as college buildings,” Sangma said.
He further emphasized the government’s commitment to improving the standard of human resources in the state. “For example, we are giving orientation to teachers in consultation with NGOs. We trained our science and mathematics teachers at IIT Guwahati last year. With all this, we are trying to improve the standard of teaching in the state, and in the years to come, we expect a different standard of education,” he concluded.