Process to be voluntary, shall end hassle of repeated admissions: CM
Shillong, Oct 13: In a major reformation in school administration, the state government has decided to link schools at various levels in a vicinity, relieving students from taking repeated admissions.
To facilitate the process, the Meghalaya School Education School Complex Rules, 2026 was approved in the state cabinet on Tuesday.
The new framework will link lower and upper primary schools with nearby secondary and higher secondary schools through nodal schools, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said after the cabinet meeting.
Meghalaya has 9,244 LP, 2,396 UP, 1,755 secondary schools and only 532 HS schools, he said while explaining the need for the reform.
Stating that this skewed structure creates serious challenges for students, he said, “This challenge in the structure of the schools leads to students not being able to get admission and it also leads to a student having to take admission two times, three times during their school education procedures.
“This means in some cases, students are taking admission once in Class I, second time in Class VI and then again in Class IX and then again in Class XI.”
Terming it a very inconvenient process, the chief minister said the School Complex Rules will ensure seamless transition without repeated paperwork.
“We are trying to connect the LP, the UP schools to surrounding secondary and higher secondary schools. We are trying to create nodal schools which will facilitate the process of admission without having to get the transfer certificate and other formalities to be completed,” he said.
“These nodal schools will be linked to the lower primary as well as the upper primary schools so that it becomes a kind of ease of transition for the students and they don’t have to do all the paperwork,” he added.
Sangma clarified that the model will be voluntary and will not interfere with the autonomy of schools.
“It is not a compulsory kind of a set up but to be done only in schools that are wanting and willing to work with us. It does not in any way infringe the working system, style and decision making of that particular nodal school,” he said.
“The idea is to only give a structure and kind of create a procedure and a process to facilitate any kind of transition from Class V to VI and from Class VIII to IX and so on and so forth,” he added.
He said the exercise will also help the government identify gaps and build a stronger network of secondary and higher secondary schools in underserved blocks and sub-divisions.
“This will also in the long run allow us to create nodal schools and model schools in different blocks and sub-divisions. We believe that there should be a strong network of secondary and higher secondary schools across different blocks, sub-divisions and districts because there are many such blocks which don’t have secondary and higher secondary schools,” Sangma said.
