SHILLONG: In the first official reaction to the restructured national education policy (NEP), state Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui described it as “good” but in the same breath wondered if Delhi would provide all the funds required to implement them.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said, “Overall policy is very good but it all depends on the finance. There are big financial implications and the questions regarding its implementation are whether the state governments can do so or not and whether the Centre will assist or not. It is a major overhaul and not a minor tweaking”.
Besides the financial issues, he said that there were connectivity issues, teaching faculty was a major challenge for the state. He, however, said that the state would have no problem if the Centre wants to spend 6 per cent of state GDP in this regard.
Rymbui appreciated more emphasis on vocational education in the new policy. On the other hand, he said the status quo on language was maintained and the three language formula remains. He also said that B.Ed and D.El.Ed are still there and it will remain for two years but enrollment pattern has been altered.
“One of the issues that was not clear was the role of minority institutions and the composition of managing committees. There is no clarity on the clusterization of school complexes as it requires a lot of infrastructure. We will understand better after getting the full text of the policy,” Rymbui said.
In Meghalaya, more than 50 per cent are church-sponsored minority institutions
) and they are running as per the provisions of the constitution, he said.
In the new policy, the 10+2 structure has been replaced with 5+3+3+4, consisting of 12 years of school and three of Anganwadi or pre-school.
“In Meghalaya, we will have a bit of challenges as play schools and Anganwadis will undergo changes”, he said. The categories will be foundational stage (ages three and eight), three years of pre-primary (ages eight to 11), a preparatory stage (ages 11 to 14) and a secondary stage (ages 14 to 18).
In this connection, Rymbui wanted to know how will the course of right to education (for ages from 6-14) in the face of the new stages — from 3 years to 18 years. He added that in this context, the Right to Education Act would have to be amended.
Official Panel to study policy
Later, Rymbui told reporters that the government will form a committee to study the education policy and how to take it forward.
Principal Secretary in-charge Education will head the committee to frame an action plan, he added.
KAS reaction
The new NEP’s direction to use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in all schools up to Class 5 (preferably till Class 8 and beyond) was welcomed by the Khasi Authors’ Society (KAS). Its president who is also the head of Khasi department, NEHU, DRL Nonglait said that mother tongue is very important and it should be taught at the grassroots but favoured that students should learn other languages given the multilingual society of the state.
“It does not mean that the lessons will be only in the mother tongue. Students should learn other languages also and should learn other languages simultaneously as in today’s context only the mother tongue is not enough as there should be a multi-lingual approach but the mother is the first language”, he said.
He said that the KAS has always wanted that the medium of instruction should be till Class 12 in all the streams but it is up to schools to opt English, Hindi and Khasi.
“But there is no government policy so we cannot translate”, he said adding that Khasi language in commerce and science stream should be a medium of instruction till Class 12. “But the level of difficulty should be the same”, Nonglait said.
He was also of the view that in Khasi medium schools, English should be a compulsory paper. “Communicative English should be there such as the components of writing, reading, speaking and listening skills”, he said.
Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui pointed out that it was only a recommendation which was “fine”.
