Shillong, July 4: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has taken up six issues related to improvement of education with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on Tuesday.
The CM, who is camping in Delhi, handed over a letter to the minister highlighting the issues related to education.
The chief minister wanted action on the high proportion of untrained teachers and other pending matters related to education in the state which bears a direct impact on the quality of teaching and learning thereby affecting the performance of students and their learning outcomes.
The six points as released by the CMO below
I. College of Teacher Education
The State of Meghalaya has a huge backlog of untrained teachers due to limited Institutional facilities. The State have only 5(five) College of Teacher Education (CTE) with an intake capacity of only 350 seats per academic year against a backlog of 5548 Secondary and 2043 Higher Secondary untrained teachers. The state evidently has a very low capacity for carrying out B.Ed courses, which is presently a minimum pre service professional qualification for Secondary and Higher Secondary teachers.
II. Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed):
The Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) programme is a specifically designed package for in-service untrained teachers working in primary/ upper primary schools of different states of the country. The programme has been of immense support to the State of Meghalaya to bridge the backlog of untrained teachers, wherein 34,730 Elementary Teachers of Meghalaya attended the Off-line course successfully during the year 2013 to 2019. Despite these efforts, the States till have a huge backlog of 18900 untrained Elementary Teachers. The State have only 7 (seven) DIETs and 1 (one) Teacher Training Centre with intake of 550 trainees per academic session, thereby posing a huge challenge to bridge this gap.
In this regard, I request you to kindly allow the State Government to clear the backlog as a one-time amnesty programme for the Secondary, Higher Secondary in-service teachers of Meghalaya under the IGNOU- Programmes – Distance – Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) and for the Elementary in-service teachers of Meghalaya under the NIOS – Programme – Distance Mode – Diploma in Elementary Education Programme as a special case.
III. NEP-2020:
The State Government of Meghalaya is preparing to implement the NEP in its entirety and
considering that the State is not equipped with adequate infrastructure & other logistic support that will require additional fund for appointment of teachers, construction of additional classroom, development of Pedagogy Resource Training, ECCE development, School complexes, etc. for which the assistance of the Central Government is sought for.
IV. SSA Matters:
The total Approved Budget Estimates Outlay w.e.f.2018 -2023 is Rs.3407.47 Crore,
whereas the Actual Releases is Rs.2722.22 Crore and the Expenditure incurred during 2018-2023 is Rs 2377.33 Crore. In this regard, a balance of Rs 685 Crore against the estimated budget is realized through the last 5 years, therefore, there is a shortfall of Annual Work Plan & Budget-PAB estimates against actual release which is insufficient to meet the aspiration of the State in fulfilling the NEP 2020 and other quality aspects such as spillover, timely release of teachers’ salary, while in provincialization of teachers’ post is still ongoing the support of the Central Government is still required. My earnest request to your good office to please re-consider the Funding Pattern and release under SSA for allowing the State to comply with the NEP-2020 aims and objectives.
V. Matters relating to NEHU:
The posts of Pro-Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Finance Officer, University Engineer are lying vacant in the University which requires to be filled by regular candidates. The post of Controller of Examination is also presently held by an Ex-Any Officer without academic background. Further, over 200 positions of Teaching faculties and Non-Teaching staff are lying vacant and has temporarily been filled by contractual workers. There are posts that are vacant due to retirement of employees. Such posts are also required to be filled.
The NEHU Campus in Tura is functioning with a lot of deficiencies. The post of Pro-Vice Chancellor that has been lying vacant for a long time needs to filled up at the earliest. There are many posts of faculties that also requires to be filled up.
Further, I will appreciate if the Govt of India considers to open up more Departments with futuristic courses in consonance with the New Education Policy in the Tura NEHU Campus for the benefit of he students of the State.
In this connection, I may apprise, that the downfall of overall ranking of the North Eastern Hill University is attributed to non-availability of funds for academic improvement & advancement, timely promotions of teachers, overall infrastructure in NEHU-roads, Street lights, Hostels, Quarters, proper Convention Centres with proper facilities for Conference, etc are major factors that have contributed towards the quality performance of the University.
VI. PM-USHA:
The State of Meghalaya benefited immensely under RUSA 1.0 and 2.0 in the efforts to improve access, equity and quality in higher Education in the State. However, in the recent relaunch of the PM-USHA, I would like to bring to your attention towards the guidelines which has fixed criteria for the components under the scheme and also the number of units approved for States to be eligible for funding. This will make situation for Meghalaya difficult to be eligible especially funding for Universities, as the State University in Meghalaya is in the initial stage of being operational and the funding criteria will make the University difficult to be funded. Further, the Preparatory Grant that supports the State TSG is not included under PM-USHA. Hence, while implementing the NEP 2020, the funds under PM-USHA would benefit the State to ensure the recommendations under the NEP 2020 Meghalaya are met. Therefore, I request you to kindly relax the funding criteria so as to enable the State of Meghalaya to participate actively in the PM USHA.
CM Conrad Sangma handed the letter to Union Home Minsiter Dharmenra Pradhan on Tuesday in the National Capital.
