Meghalaya Government appeals to all the state legislators of the state to shoulder responsibility to revamp the Education Department as it plans a programme similar to that of the “School Adoption Program.’
Stating that the nomenclature for the programme may be different, Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma said the aim is to provide quality infrastructure and education in state-run schools.
“I will appeal to all the MLAs of the state to shoulder the responsibility; at least they can use their MLA Special Rural Works Programme (SRWP) funds for repairing, renovating, and building schools,” Sangma said.
Asked if it is adopting a school programme, he said, “Whether that nomenclature is used or not, it is in that line only, but to be frank, every stakeholder, every legislator, every individual should take responsibility as the education department requires massive revamps and transformation.”
He further expressed his confidence that the legislators of the state will be happy to shoulder those responsibilities along with the government.
Further, the new Education Minister said a massive school survey will be conducted to get all the information and data of every school in the state and understand the various problems associated with it.
“There are certain schools that have very low enrollment, and there are so many schools that are just lying around like that,” the education minister said.
Informing that all the matters would be examined, he said, “I am of the view that in the next two to three months we are going to have a massive school education survey of all the data and information. There may be schools under certain areas, certain districts, subdivisions, and constituencies that require a small intervention, be it furniture or a small repair of the school building, etc.”
He said this survey will help the government identify schools that require immediate intervention.
Meanwhile, asked about the schools with teachers in the state, the education minister said the government will make a stop gap temporary arrangement for such schools.
“For those schools without teachers for the next one or two months, we will have a stop gap arrangement. We are going to appoint the teachers in the government lower primary schools on a 59-day system until the regular recruitment process is done,” he added.
It may be mentioned that the state has 36 lower primary schools without any teachers.