By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 27: Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma announced on Friday that the state government will conduct interviews in mid-November to fill around 1,200 positions of teachers in Lower Primary schools and 300–400 positions in Upper Primary schools.
“We have already scheduled the interview for the MTET qualified candidates which will be held from November 15 to fill up more than 1,200 vacancies in the government LP school and more than 300-400 in the UP schools. We hope to finish the process before Christmas,” he informed.
“We will be able to offer appointments to the qualified candidates before Christmas,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) met Sangma and flagged issues such as lack of teachers, depleting infrastructure, and unused facilities affecting the education sector in the West Khasi Hills district.
“There are about 90 government LP schools in WKH with about 50-100 students but only one or two teachers who have to take classes from nursery to V. The teachers of such schools are under tremendous stress,” HYC president Roy Kupar Synrem said after meeting the education minister.
“We took up this issue with the education minister and urged the state government to take necessary steps. There should ideally be one teacher per 30 students,” he said.
“The minister assured us that the government would start the LP school teacher recruitment process across the state in November,” he added.
Synrem said Sangma took note of their concerns and assured them of steps to maintain the prescribed teacher-student ratio.
“Most of the existing LP and UP schools in the WKH district are in ruins. We fear these schools would have to be shut down during the monsoon because of the condition of the buildings,” he said.
He said members of the HYC’s WKH unit visited 30-40 schools and found out that 8-10 students have to be seated uncomfortably on a bench in each school.
“We have demanded the renovation of the school buildings at the earliest and the construction of new buildings with furniture supplied if needed,” Synrem said.
He said the education minister told the HYC delegation that 1,500-1,600 out of some 2,000 LP schools in the state would be repaired while a work order has been issued to contractors for constructing about 500 schools in the coming months.
Sangma, however, said the government would constitute a fact-finding team to find out how the funds for buying school furniture have been utilised.
The HYC leader said Sib Sing Memorial School, opened in 1995, is the only government higher secondary school in WKH.
“There are six contractual teachers and may leave midway creating a lot of problems for the students. So, we have asked the state government to provide permanent teachers, especially for mathematics in these schools,” he said.
He lamented the deterioration of the school soon after Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma inaugurated its new building on January 17 this year.