SHILLONG, June 13: After the recent report of Performance Grading Index (PGI) for 2019-20 placed Meghalaya at the bottom, teachers and educationists in the state want the state government to improve the infrastructure of government schools and ensure better training for the teachers.
Shillong-based Rahul S Chatterjee, who is a winner of the National Teachers’ Award, said the report is based on the data collected through Shaala Siddhi, a School Standards and Evaluation Framework. The data is directly uploaded by the schools annually.
He said there are seven key domains such as Enabling Resources of School: Availability, Adequacy and Usability; Teaching-Learning and Assessment; Learners’ Progress, Attainment and Development; Managing Teacher Performance and Professional Development; School Leadership and Management; Inclusion, Health and Safety and Productive Community Participation. Each key domain is further subdivided into several Core Standards, totalling up to 46 Core Standards.
Meghalaya lags behind mostly in Enabling Resources of School: Availability, Adequacy and Usability; in short infrastructure.
Chatterjee said the performance of the state’s government and government-aided schools in key domains like Teaching-Learning and Assessment or Learners’ Progress, Attainment and Development should be much better.
“I haven’t seen the final data or the report but I can say this because Government of Meghalaya has got a large section of the teachers trained under the Human Capital Development Programme, funded by the Asian Development Bank.
This training has changed the way teachers conduct their classes and do assessment. Unfortunately, the pandemic came at a time when the effect of the training was just beginning to take off, he said.
He added that the programme also had an infrastructure development aspect and through this, over 100 schools got new buildings along with smart class equipment and good quality desks and benches.
Additional Chief Secretary of Education, DP Wahlang said, “We have shortcomings in some domains and it is imperative that we invest more in school education, especially in terms of infrastructure.”
According to him, the investments in Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan are skewed towards payment of salaries and other soft components. The state needs to understand that due to its peculiarities, the number of schools is nearly three times that of a similarly-placed state in terms of size and population because the number of its habitations and villages is larger and more scattered.
“This has always been a major developmental challenge. The state has taken the report in right spirit and in last two years, a lot of investments have gone into the weak areas, the results of which would be visible in the near future,” he said.
The official said an approval was made recently to revamp old infrastructure in more than 200 schools under the State Plan and this would soon fructify into very tangible assets, replacing the very dilapidated structures.
Curriculum, training, placement of trained teachers and rationalisation of school locations are some of the initiatives already taken up by the department, Wahlang said, adding that textbooks and school uniforms are provided under SSA every year except for 2018-19 due to shortage of funds.
“Preponderance of investments in the education sector is for salaries. It is imperative that we go beyond that and give additional impetus to other areas by increasing investment. The government is moving towards that direction,” he said.
NEHU Vice Chancellor, Prof SK Srivastava stressed that keeping in mind the Covid situation, the state must develop infrastructure for online education.
He observed that the base for subjects like mathematics and science is quite weak in the state and the region and as such, the government needs to put more attention to ensure that the students have a healthy base for the two subjects.
Br Solomon Morris, Principal of St. Edmund’s School said the state need to work upon the training of teachers by equipping them with better training programmes. He agreed with the report that the quality of schools in the villages is not that good and categorically stated that all heads must work together to improve school infrastructure in rural areas.
Former president of Khasi Jaintia Deficit School Teachers’ Association, ED Nongsiang said private schools, especially those run by missionaries, were doing quite well in the state and the government schools were lagging behind in terms of infrastructure and teaching.
