By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 4: The deadlock over NEP implementation, which has come along this far, may further extend as there is no signs of abatement, and now the state government has decided to give the issue a wide berth.
Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma on Tuesday ruled out state government’s intervention to end the impasse.
“The opposition to the implementation of the NEP has not come either from the management, principals or students. Now the issue is between the MCTA and NEHU,” Sangma said when asked if the government will take the initiative to bring everyone on board to end the current stalemate.
The minister has asked the Meghalaya College Teachers Association (MCTA) and NEHU to sort out their issues, while emphasising that any decision to be arrived at should be in the interest of the students.
He further said that the state government has already convened a number of meetings with the principals and management of the various colleges.
According to him, the student community will face the challenges to get admission in other universities if they continue with the three-year undergraduate courses.
The Education minister pointed out that majority of the states including Delhi and Mizoram have already started implementing the NEP.
“It is the best decision to go ahead to implementing the NEP from this year,” he said.
Earlier on July 26, the Education minister had stated that the colleges in the state are divided on the proposed implementation of NEP from August.
While prominent colleges were prepared to proceed with NEP’s implementation from August, Sangma had said that majority of other institutions expressed their reservations.
He had even mentioned that out of the 43 colleges which responded to queries from government, 33 expressed their inability to go ahead with NEP’s implementation.
Interestingly, in a few weeks’ time, all the colleges in the state were ready to go ahead with NEP implementation.
Sangma, however, refuted that there is no political agenda in the decision to push for the implementation of the NEP, as is being alleged.
“Politics or business should not come in between when it comes to policy matters in the education sector,” Education Minister added.
Education Commission on the job
Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma also said that the recently constituted State Education Commission (SEC) is examining the ways to improve the education system in the state.
When asked about the problem of too many categories of teachers in the state, Sangma said that the SEC will make necessary recommendations to the government on whether there should be only one or two or three categories of teachers.
“Let us wait for the recommendations of the SEC and then we will examine whether we should go forward with it,” he said while speaking on the sideline of an official function to celebrate Teachers’ Day at Soso Tham auditorium.
Maintaining that the government is working to ensure the welfare of the teachers, the minister said, “We are working to have an online training and have even tied up with IGNOU for the teachers’ training.”
He said that the review committee is also on the job to make recommendations on the textbooks which will be beneficial for the students.
“We are going to come up with our own textbooks and also include the best for the benefit of the students. We want our curriculum to be the best in the country,” Sangma said.