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Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday stated that the government will persist in investing in education and plans to enhance the development of infrastructure for higher and technical education in the state.
Speaking at the inaugural function of Sohra Government College in East Khasi Hills in the presence of Education Minister Rakkam Sangma and Health Minister Dr. Mazel, Ampareen Lyngdoh, the Chief Minister asserted that higher and technical education will get a major boost as centres for higher learning in science, engineering and architecture are being set up in the state. "We believe in investing in our youth, and our priority will remain education," he said while asserting that the government has envisaged investing in human capital.Informing that the government had to make tough decisions for making reforms in education, he said, "We had to take bold decisions to make real change in a short period of time. Our education minister, Lahkmen Rymbui, was very clear and decisive in his approach and we move forward to ensure that we are able to deliver transformative change in the education sector"."For years, the cess on education was collected by the government but was never spent. When we took over, we decided that every single rupee collected through cess should be used for education. From the cess, we have started construction of new infrastructure as well as renovation of different schools and colleges", he added. He added that all government secondary schools across the state have been accorded sanction for either renovation or construction of new buildings. He also informed that close to 2500 LP schools have been either renovated or constructed with a budget of Rs. 500 cr. On the introduction of NCERT textbooks for the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE), he said, "Mathematics and science are uniform throughout the world; the implementation of NCERT textbooks will ensure that our children are at par with students from the rest of the world". He further stated that MBoSE will adhere to NCERT guidelines and include local and traditional knowledge in the textbooks for schools. "We are at the bottom of the Performance Grading Index (PGI). The introduction of NCERT textbooks in our schools will improve our learning outcomes. By adopting to NCERT textbooks we will improve by 15-20 per cent in the graph, as learning outcomes are the basis of PGI", he added. "NCERT textbooks will ensure quality content", he stressed. On introduction of multi-disciplinary subjects under NEP 2020, he said that all Government colleges across the State will introduce commerce and science stream. "The proposal is with finance and will be put up to the cabinet for approval. I would like to assure you that as chairman of the cabinet, we will surely get the proposal cleared as this is in the interest of our student community". He said it will be a tough decision, as it will incur financial implications of close to 20 cr, but the Government is committed to making sure that the resources and the funds are made available. "At present, the Government has a budget of Rs. 2000 cr for education, which is highest amongst all departments", the minister claimed. Education Minister Rakkam Sangma said that the Government is committed to provide all support to education institutions across the State to elevate the infrastructure and learning outcomes. (ANI)
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