Past govts lacked effort to build infrastructure, streamline education system: Rakkam
Shillong, June 23: The state government has attributed Meghalaya’s poor performance in a key education index to the “neglect” of the sector by previous governments of past 20-30 years in several aspects, including building and power infrastructure, educational tools, teachers’ attendance.
Reacting to the Performance Grading Index (PGI) for states, education minister Rakkam Sangma alleged that the previous governments lacked effort to reform and streamline the education system, leaving a lasting impact on the state’s education system.
“We have to understand that the figure which reflected today is the outcome of the government’s efforts. In the past 20-30 years, government of Meghalaya did not put any effort to reform or to streamline the education system,” he told reporters on Monday.
“There was no electricity, no blackboard, no classroom, dilapidated buildings,” he said while accusing past governments of not considering to build infrastructure.
“The education sector was completely abandoned in the past 20-30 years,” he said.
Referring to the poor teacher attendance system, he said, “There was no enrolment and many teachers do not go to the schools – these were happening in the past 20-30 years,” he said.
Stating about current government’s efforts to improve the education sector, he said over 2,700 schools have been renovated and more than 700-800 schools provided with new buildings, toilets, smart classrooms, and ensured teacher attendance in the past two-three years.
However, he said, these initiatives would take time to reflect in the results, and the actual figure will improve over the next two-three years.
“Result we are seeing today is the hard work of yesterday. The work done today will reflect tomorrow or day after,” he said.
Urging critics to look back at historic neglect of education sector, he said, “…they have to look back, who was in power 10-15 years ago. You should also take responsibility because it is your work that is being reflected today…”
He termed multiple school categories operating under a single UDI (Unique Digital Identifier) as a key challenge in reforming the education sector.
Pointing out some criteria that further downgraded Meghalaya’s PGI ranking, he said the need for electricity to run AC is not the same in Meghalaya and Rajasthan, yet it is counted as a key parameter in calculating the ranking.
“We do not need electricity in the classroom… we neither need fan nor AC, we have a good environment,” he said.
Sometimes 4-5 categories of schools such as SSA, ad hoc, deficit, government, RMSA and private are in one campus with one set of toilet, library, common room, road, power connection, playground, etc.
The PGI ranking method is such that different schools having these common facilities, although they serve the purpose of all, rate the schools poorly.
“However, we are going to streamline all these under the dynamic leadership of the chief minister. The chief minister and government are committed to bring necessary reforms and you will see the results in the coming days,” the minister added.
