SHILLONG: The State Education Mission Authority of Meghalaya (SEMAM), in collaboration with the National Commission on Protection of Child Rights and Child Protection (NCPCR), organised a one-day state workshop to sensitise School Managing Committees (SMC) on issues relating to child rights and protection in the city on Wednesday.
According to Kushal Singh, Chairperson of NCPCR, Meghalaya is the first state to organise this kind of workshop and thanked the state government for giving top priority to the issue even as she said that the government must ensure that the right to free education is implemented in letter and spirit.
Deputy Chief Minister in-charge education, Prof RC Laloo, in his inaugural speech said that the SSA and RTE are both community-driven programmes and there is therefore a need for active community participation in implementation of the RTE Act
“The connecting link between the Education Department and the community is through schools that are run by School Managing Committees (SMCs) and it plays a vital and critical role in the development of education system in the respective blocks, districts and state as a whole,” he said.
Laloo further informed that around 3,566 training programmes were conducted by SMCs in various clusters and blocks in the 11 districts of the state where 2,19,858 members were trained until March 31.
The workshop was attended by members of SMCs, NGOs, teachers and officials from line departments.
The inaugural function was followed by a presentation on “Overview of Child Rights – the legal framework and the role of NCPCR and SCPCR in monitoring these rights” by a representative from NCPCR and panel discussions on various topics in relation to