The ongoing interrogation into the state of education in Meghalaya reveals a sordid mess compounded by years of neglect of the sector. This has allowed politicians to turn education into a vote-winning political tool by disregarding merit in appointment of teachers; opening schools at places that were not viable thereby leading to a situation of a handful of students with more teachers all paid from the government treasury. Without regular inspection the schools remained largely closed as teachers did not attend to their duties or attended only when they were pleased to do so. Several schools are in a decrepit state and the roofs leaking so classes cannot be held during the monsoons. Schools lacked hygienic toilets and pushed students to defecate in the jungles nearby. There has been a consistent lack of political will to do anything to change the status quo.
In all of this the competence of the teachers has remained a grey area. When appointment to a teaching post is based on political string-pulling it can well be imagined what sort of teachers are educating the rural students who actually need greater attention and assistance even beyond school hours. All this would have surfaced if inspectors were regularly evaluating the educational outcomes in each school. Presently what is happening is that Government is paying for dismal education or no education. When students drop out of school, it is important to interview them and look for the reasons. Only when Government knows the crux of the problem will it be able to sort out the mess. Government must commission immediate study into the educational outcomes in the rural educational institutions of Meghalaya. The teachers and principals should be queried if they have done anything and gone out of their way to apply innovative learning methods to improve the performance of students. Or if the schools were functioning with a ‘business as usual’ attitude since salaries are being paid irrespective of the outcomes.
Private institutions usually function better because parents take active part and engage with the school management. In villages it should have been the responsibility of the village dorbars and the nokmas to oversee the functioning of schools. These village institutions should call a meeting of parents and heads of institutions to discuss the sorry state of affairs of education in their respective areas. Rural parents have no platform to air their views on any issue. The village dorbars/nokmas should call such meetings regularly so that parents can air their grievances and say what exactly their children are facing and why they prefer to drop out even at the primary level. It is time that Government turns its eyes to the rural areas of Meghalaya where governance has failed on all fronts be it roads, water supply, education, health, you name it..
