Shillong, Oct 30: The Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma underlined the different approach of his government in reforming the education, saying the various programmes launched by the government have not only sought to diagnose the issues afflicting the various stakeholders but also offered solutions.
“It often happens that we treat adolescents and their behaviour as a problem but fail to address the actual problem of emotion, physical and psychological growth that they are going through during adolescence and MPOWER is trying to address this,” he said while inaugurating a two-day MPOWER Education Conclave on Thursday.
MPOWER, supported by World Bank, aims at enhancing well-being, empowerment and resilience of adolescents aged 9 to 19 years in Meghalaya by addressing challenges such as high dropout rate and teenage pregnancy.
Explaining the MPOWER objectives, he said, “Through this MPOWER programme, issues related to adolescence like school dropout, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse will be addressed to a large extent… energy of the youth will be nurtured and shaped in the right direction,” he said.
On other reforms undertaken in education sector, the Chief Minister said, “A large number of transformative steps have been taken in the past few years.”
However, he pointed out, it will take 10-15 years to see outcome of such initiatives.
“It does not happen overnight,” he said adding that foundation to make the difference has been started.
Identifying too many categories of schools as one of the major issues faced by Education department, he said, “We have 14,000 schools and there is a problem in the rationalisation of different schools. There are also structural problems which need to be resolved in a transitional manner into a new phase.”
Referring to the problems faced by SSA and ad hoc teachers he said there is no set system for SSA and ad hoc teachers.
“The government is trying to structure a system for SSA and ad hoc teachers to give them this surety and guarantee,” he said.
“While we are transitioning into a structured and organised system we also also trying to rationalise the schools and its assets and reduce the category of schools,” he added.
He further added that the decisions that are taken in the present day will have impact in the future bringing in a transformative and permanent solution to the problems in Education sector.
Meanwhile, the he announced CM Mission of 100% Toilets saying, “Though this programme is not only for schools, under this programme we will ensure that all schools have toilets with water supply.”
All tourist places, schools, colleges, hospitals, offices and public places will have clean toilets under the programme.
Inauguration of the conclave was also attended by Education Minister Lakhmen Rymbui, Chief Secretary Dr Shakil Ahammed, Principal Secretary Sampath Kumar, Commissioner & Secretary Vijay Kumar Mantri and Commissioner & Secretary R Rapthap among others.
