The Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) is observing its 50th milestone with much fanfare but some honest introspection is called for. The rate of failure in the SSLC exams is very high compared to other Boards. Here, the Government Education Department ought to have exerted itself and questioned the high rate of failure year after year and of schools that have zero pass percentage; some of them in Garo Hills where the Board is headquartered. The responsibilities of the MBOSE include policy-making and recommending necessary text books after a critical examination of such text books to ensure they meet the educational needs of students and provide a more nuanced learning atmosphere. From time to time the MBOSE officials need to make surprise visits to schools that are under-performing in their senior school leaving certificate examinations (SSLC) to find out reasons for the same. Leaving this supervisory task to the Education Department alone is not enough. The MBOSE should actually do a fact-finding exercise as to the high percentage of failures and arrive at some remedial measures. To move from year to year without examining what ails the system is to be apathetic to the state of education in Meghalaya. It is the Board’s onus to investigate the high rate of failures. Is it to do with the curriculum and its non-resonance with students’ in rural Meghalaya? Is the curriculum too attuned to urban learning conditions? What about the teachers and their communication forte? Who measures the outcomes of teachers once they are appointed especially in Government run schools and those under the Deficit System of grant-in aid?
Much has been spoken about the ‘joy of leaning’ but do students look forward to come to school or do they drag their feet and prefer to stay out? What about experiential learning? How much of what happens in rural Meghalaya is captured in the curriculum? Without those real- life experiences becoming part of the marking system how does experiential learning happen? Experiential learning includes field work and short internships so students learn by doing, but these are not part of the MBOSE framework. Everything is restricted to classroom learning. Another important research question is to assess the numeracy skills of local tribal students and find out whether the problem is that of not having teachers with the required pedagogy skills or whether it’s something else. The fact that only about 12% of students opt for the Sciences in Class 11 and 12 is a subject matter of great concern. But that concern is not visible in the MBOSE establishment.
Does MBOSE enable an investigation-based, application-oriented learning where students develop critical thinking and research skills. Why is the curiosity level and inquiry lacking? MBOSE’s focus should be on how to gather knowledge and apply it rather than on the amount of knowledge gained. Learning ought to be relatively stress-free with continuous evaluations in every subject. But is MBOSE up for this?