SHILLONG, March 8: The Opposition and ruling MLAs came together in the House on Tuesday to raise concern over schools without teachers, the growing dropout rate, the curriculum gap and the knowledge deficit among students arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
East Shillong MLA, Ampareen Lyngdoh referred to a report from the Ministry of Education, which indicated in a recently-conducted research that 3.5 out of every 100 children are out of school, and asked the government if there is any proposal to address students’ curriculum gap and knowledge deficit as they are returning to classroom after two full academic years.
To this, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said the academic session just started and the government is seeking a report from all districts on dropouts. Accordingly, he said, the department will address the issue.
According to him, a meeting in this regard was convened by the Director, Educational Research and Training on March 8 last year before the start of the academic year.
Ampareen mentioned that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) recommended that the department should identify vulnerable groups, provide financial aid to students across the country, initiate special academic support sessions and ensure provision for teachers to undergo adequate training to adapt to the new normal.
Rymbui said in order to achieve these goals, the Education department is taking several steps such as that all schools will establish Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). The PLCs are school-based teacher teams in all government and government-aided schools to identify learning gaps through daily lessons and formative assessment.
At present, there are over 800 schools in the state with functional PLC. The timeline to complete this is August 2022.
Joining the discussion, NPP legislator Ferlin CA Sangma said pointed out that 23 schools under Dadenggre civil subdivision had no permanent teachers since they were employed on contractual basis.
“The situation has occurred as a result of MTET. The appointment of 184 teachers is still under process,” Ferlin said.
When she asked as to how the government is going to tackle the problem, Rymbui said the process of recruitment of teachers is underway. He was hopeful the Education department would be able to complete the process soon.
(Contd on P-4)
MLAs voice concern over dropouts…
(Contd from P-1) Nationalist Congress Party MLA, Saleng Sangma said infrastructure such as desks and benches were either stolen or damaged in his Gambegre constituency as the schools remained closed for two years in the pandemic.
Mawsynram MLA, Himalaya Shangpliang expressed concern over the dilapidated condition of the LP school buildings in his constituency while leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma wanted to know what measures the government is taking to ensure there are sufficient teachers in schools.
In his reply, Rymbui said, “The appointment of teachers is a process which is difficult to complete immediately. We have tried to streamline and want the process to be completed at the earliest.”
Rymbui said the Education department had appointed permanent teachers in several schools in the Dadenggre subdivision last year. He added that as there is a shortage of qualified teachers in different districts, the department carried out MTET exams.
When MLAs George Lyngdoh and Zenith Sangma wanted to know by when the government hopes to complete the process, Rymbui said the department will be able to do it within a month if it does not face any hurdles.