From Our Correspondent
TURA, Oct 19: Youth are the greatest assets and resource of the state and that the government has been committed to ensure that the potential of the youth is harnessed to its optimum.
Sangma was speaking during the final day of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE), wherein he asserted that it was the duty of the government to ensure that youngsters are kept right at the centre of any government initiative.
“It is our duty as a government to ensure that we keep the youngsters right at the centre of what we are trying to do for our state. Scheme-based governance is a very, very narrow way of looking at things because when you look at a scheme, you only want to implement the scheme… and you don’t understand the purpose of implementing the scheme. However, we keep the youth in front of us and make the decision,” he said, adding it was the responsibility of the stakeholders to play their part.
Pointing out that Meghalaya is a small state as compared to other states like UP, the CM said that in order for development and success to be achieved, producing quality personnel to compete and contribute was the need of the hour.
Sangma also acknowledged the contributions of the founding fathers who, despite various challenges, conceptualised the board (MBoSE) in 1973, and expressed his desire to offer tribute to the leaders who sacrificed a lot. “It is indeed a momentous occasion and I would like to congratulate everyone who made it possible for MBoSE to celebrate 50 years of its functioning and existence”, he added.
Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said that there was no precise device to measure the quality of an individual other than through education. “I look forward to the leadership of our Chief Minister in furthering the development of education in the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary DP Wahlang compared the journey of MBoSE to a football match.
“At halftime MBoSE was restructured in 2006 since its inception in 1973. Now at 2023, we are celebrating 50 years. The first board exam of MBoSE took place in 1974 and less than 3800 examinees and has had a quantum jump more than 80,000 both in the metric and class XII exams,” he said
According to Wahlang, the state’s literacy rate changed dramatically from 24.49% to 80 % till date with the increase in educational institutions from 40-50 to 2923 schools affiliated to MBoSE of which 18166 are secondary schools and 421 are higher secondary schools.