AMPATI, Jan 14: In what is being dubbed as historic, Meghalaya’s first state university — Captain Williamson Sangma State University, named after the first Chief Minister of Meghalaya — was inaugurated on Saturday.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma inaugurated the newly constructed university building located at a scenic campus in Balalgre village, South West Garo Hills.
Dedicating the university to students, who are the future of Meghalaya, the CM said the institute was earlier a Technical university with limited courses. “Because of different circumstances and challenges we faced during previous years and also to ensure that we have our own state university, the Cabinet has decided that this Technical University should be converted into a full-fledged state university.”
“Necessary steps have been taken and the process is on for an official ordinance to be notified by the Governor,” he said.
Responding to the issues raised by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, RD Shira, with regard to inadequate infrastructure for the university, the chief minister admitted that it is not enough. “We need to work towards creating a proper blueprint and a master plan to ensure that the University has all the necessary facilities that are required by the students and for a university to function in a proper manner. Let me assure all of you that is exactly what our plan is,” he said.
With a full-fledged university, the state would be able to bypass the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and also give colleges within the state the option to affiliate to the State University instead of the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU).
In his address, Conrad said, “Apart from basic things like the boundary wall which has been sanctioned now, and the work is expect to start soon, we have already sanctioned the road connectivity from the main road up to the campus and the building here, for which we expect the work to start very soon. As suggested, we have already started working on a larger picture, a larger plan, on where this University should go in the coming years.”
“More steps will have to be taken to ensure that we strengthen the overall system and the process to make this University, our first State University into one of the better and in the future, the best University of the region.”
He assured the people that the government has “big plans” for the university.
“Many other areas of reforms in terms of training and other aspects in terms of policy which were pending for a very long time have been taken up under this government. I feel happy and satisfied to look back at the last 5 years and see the kind of work that has gone into education and see that the overall level of education goes up,” the CM said.
He, however, admitted that not everything has changed.
“But while I say that, I’m not saying that everything has changed. Education may be or most probably is one of the most complicated, challenging sectors in the state today. We have numerous categories of teachers – almost 26 categories of teachers. We have different categories whom we need to support but at the same time there is no actual way of monitoring the working of the schools. There’s very little say from the government’s side though the financial impact is there of over Rs 2,000 crore which we have to spend for different ad-hoc and deficit schools and colleges and yet government does not have a detailed say.”
“That’s why we came up with the Education Commission which will now look into the overall functioning of all the different schools and education institutions.”
Others who were present during the inaugural function include Chief Adviser to the Chief Minister, Thomas A Sangma, Commissioner and Secretary, Education, BDR Tiwari, Secretary, Education, Ambrose Ch Marak, Tura Municipal Board Chairman, JD Sangma, besides heads of various educational institutions and academicians, South West Garo Hills district administration officials, Nokmas and public of the area.
