National desk, 4 July: Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma penned a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday pleading for prompt action to address critical problems affecting the state’s educational system.
In order to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Meghalaya which has a direct bearing on student performance and learning outcomes, the letter identifies five critical areas that need immediate attention and intervention.
Meghalaya CM expressed his appreciation for the dynamic leadership of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in a letter to him. Pradhan has a mission to spread learner-centric strategies with an emphasis on equity, access and high-quality education.
The lack of qualified teachers in Meghalaya is the first issue brought up by CM Conrad Sangma.
“Due to the state of Meghalaya’s inadequate institutional resources, there is a significant shortage of unskilled teachers. There are currently 5548 untrained secondary teachers and 2043 untrained higher secondary teachers in the state, and there are only 5 (five) Colleges of Teacher Education (CTE) with a capacity of 350 seats every academic year. The state clearly lacks the resources to offer B.Ed programmes, which are currently the minimal pre-service professional requirements for teachers in secondary and higher education,” the letter written to Pradhan reads.
As the state only has seven DIETs and one Teacher Training Centre with an intake of 550 trainees per academic session, it poses a significant difficulty to close the gap of 18900 untrained elementary teachers which was further cause for concern.
“A programme specifically created for in-service, untrained teachers working in primary and upper primary schools across the nation is called the Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed). The scheme helped the State of Meghalaya tremendously to reduce the shortage of untrained teachers, and from 2013 to 2019, 34,730 Meghalaya elementary school teachers successfully completed the online course. Despite these initiatives, there is still a significant shortage of 18900 untrained elementary teachers in the States. To close this gap, the State has just seven DIETs and one teacher training centre, both of which only accept 550 trainees per academic session,” the letter asked the Union Minister to grant the state government’s request to clear the backlog as a one-time amnesty programme for Meghalaya’s Secondary and Higher Secondary in-service teachers enrolled in the distance-learning Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) programme through IGNOU and for the state’s in-service elementary teachers enrolled in the distance-learning Diploma in Elementary Education programme through NIOS. CM Conrad Sangma also emphasized the challenges faced by the state in implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“The State Government of Meghalaya is preparing to implement the NEP in its entirety, but given that the State lacks adequate infrastructure and other logistical support, it will need additional funding for the hiring of teachers, building a new classroom, developing pedagogy resource training, developing ECCE, building school complexes, etc. The Central Government’s help is requested for these purposes,” it read.
Additionally, CM Sangma emphasised the SSA’s funding gap and requested officials to reevaluate their approach to allocating funds. Moreover, the message highlighted the open posts at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU).