SHILLONG: The New Education Policy, which poses a “humongous challenge” for Meghalaya, is likely to be partially implemented from next academic session. The policy which demands complete dismantling of the existing system of school education is going to take all the actors, public or private, to put their acts together.
Principal Secretary Education, DP Wahlang, made no bones about the herculean task at hand. He told The Shillong Times in an interview (See full text on P-3) that the policy document, which he described as “game changer”, was nothing short of a “system overhaul” which was a time taking task. The state may take a few baby steps next year, he anticipated.
The indications are that the state may be in a position to tinker with the existing school education system next year. In any case, the government will take a long time to be battle-ready.
Elaborating he said, transformation of the existing school system into a 5+3+3+4 format would be the biggest challenge before the state.
“Restructuring curriculum and pedagogy” being the foremost, and add to it, framing of the operational guidelines of the policy document which would easily make the exercise “humongous”, he felt.
Massive investment on infrastructure apart, the state would encounter serious issues with text books. The Policy document envisages application of mother tongue at schools.
A state like Meghalaya with pluralistic milieu with it adds to the deficiency of text books in mother tongue for all the major communities.
Referring to finance and human resources, Wahlang admitted that on both counts the requirement would of gigantic proportion. Without delving much on finance which remains to be worked out, he said that teachers training would have to undergo a “major shift”. The teachers would have to be flexible and adjusting enough to inculcate “new ideas”, he said.
Mobilisation of finance will be a huge task for a cash-starved state like Meghalaya.
Although Centre has projected a higher investment on education from 4.3% to 6% of national GDP, it remains to be seen how the allocations are made from Delhi. In any case, detailed fund requirement will take a while.
According to Wahlang, the new Policy was “rooted in Indian ethos to transform the country into knowledge superpower”.
However, he added a rider saying the state needs to further deep dive to study the finer nuances of the document. “After all, devil lies in details”, he added to sign off.
