By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 7: The Opposition Congress on Thursday said the state government has been dilly-dallying on the implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in Meghalaya.
“The government is pressurising the colleges to implement the new policy but is doing nothing to prepare the ground for it,” Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary, Manuel Badwar said.
The state will require the right infrastructure and adequate manpower to implement the policy, which the state government is not talking about, he said.
“It looks like the government is not ready to take the responsibility. The colleges will need government support to meet these requirements. But the government is not addressing these two core issues,” Badwar said.
He slammed the state government for letting the impasse drag by refusing to intervene in the ongoing tussle between the Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA) and the NEHU.
It is expected of the government to hold consultations with the agitating college teachers and the principals to understand their problems, he said.
“The impasse is badly affecting the first-semester students of the UG courses,” he said.
“The government should have allocated funds to support the colleges in implementing the NEP. But this has been done so far,” he said, adding that the NPP-led MDA 2.0 government seems to have its priority wrong.
Badwar said the government should have made a plan before deciding to implement the NEP and could have gone for a phased implementation.
He refrained from commenting on the NEHU Vice Chancellor, Prabha Shankar Shukla as “he is only following the orders from Delhi”.
“But we expect the government to be more sensible since it is dealing with the future of the students. The government is trying to shift the responsibility to the university. No one knows when this current impasse is going to end,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NEHUSU is organising a talk on the NEP titled ‘National Education Policy 2020: A neo-liberal onslaught on the fundamental right to education’ on the NEHU campus at 2.45 p.m. on Friday.
Eminent NEHU scholars, H Srikanth of Political Science department, Prasenjit Biswas and Xavier Mao (Philosophy), and SK Pradhan of the Commerce department from St. Anthony’s College are expected to join.
Mawlai MLA Brightstarwell Marbaniang, Hynniewtrep Youth Council president Robert June Kharjahrin, and student representative Sonal KS will participate in the event.
