In continuation to my letter “Meghalaya needs educators, not teachers” which appeared in ST on 18th January 2025. A school with zero enrolment refers to an educational institution that currently has no students enrolled. These schools, often termed “ghost schools,” exist on paper but do not have any active students attending classes. The presence of such schools’ highlights issues like resources misallocation, where teachers and infrastructure are maintained without serving any students.
This can divert resources away from schools with an actual student population, exacerbating inequalities in access to quality education. According to the Unified District Information System for Education 2023-24 there are 13000 such schools in the country. The highest numbers being in West Bengal and Rajasthan. A peak into such schools in the Himalayan States is given below.
Schools with Zero enrolment and teachers in Himalayan States
Source: UDISE+ 2023-24, Ministry of Education, GOI
Yours etc;
VK Lyngdoh,
Via email
Maiden cabinet retreat of MDA government
Editor,
Recently, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma led a team of his cabinet ministers, government functionaries, heads of departments and DCs from across the state to Sohra for a two day retreat to chalk out the nuances of strategies for uplifting the effective implementation of various relevant vital schemes and how to bring about actionable results that would percolate to the grassroot levels and thereby usher in inclusive developments in Meghalaya. The pre-eminent motive of this retreat was perceptively to achieve the goal of the much vaunted vision of 2032, when Meghalaya shall attain six decades of its creation! Hence, hats off to the Chief Minister.
Coincidentally, such official retreat was perhaps the brainchild of Dr. OC Rangad, the dynamic ex- Director of Horticulture, Meghalaya, who initiated this sort of retreat nearly twenty years ago! This Director crafted a noble orientation, at convenient interval of times, by leading his key departmental officers from across the State to each district for a few days to hold a brainstorming retreat meeting to focus on the pros and cons of the manifold horticultural schemes hitherto implemented plus the future course of holistic actions. In such a platform, under the chairmanship of the said ex-Director, each officer who was shouldered with the execution of the assigned schemes was invited to come forward to face the audience to present his/her status reports contributed accordingly, so officers had to be on their toes regarding their respective assigned performances.
In the end, well-meaning or sane advice was suggested to the attending officers and how to effectively deal the field challenges they encountered, thereby precipitating an overarching development of the State in the domain of horticulture. The aforesaid ex-Director was perhaps passionately aware that Meghalaya possesses immense potentiality in the field of horticulture prospects premised on the agro-climatic feasibility and the latter may have taken into cognizance that if apple can constitute as an economic mainstay of Himachal Pradesh, then Meghalaya too, he may have visualized, based on its horticulture topography can in no uncertain terms make our State achieve an extra mile in terms of economic prosperity
No wonder then that today we are witnessing how horticulture productivity in Meghalaya, be it fruits, vegetables or floriculture have developed by leaps and bounds, which is also why an orange variety christened Khasi mandarin has carved a niche in far off countries and earned compliments.. In fine, I hope other Heads of Departments would take a leaf out of the legacy pioneered by the former Director of Horticulture! Good practices need to be replicated.
Yours etc.,
Jerome K Diengdoh,
Shillong-2
National flag must be respected at all times!
Editor,
I am writing to express my concern about the national flag hoisted at the P.W.D. complex. In my previous letter to your esteemed newspaper, I had brought to light the damaged state of the national flag at the complex. I am pleased to note that the authorities took prompt action and replaced the damaged flag. However, I am dismayed to see that the new flag has again been damaged due to strong winds. This raises serious questions about the quality of the flag. It is surprising to note that other states have huge national flags hoisted in public spaces that have withstood the elements for decades, whereas our flags seem to get damaged within months.
What sort of quality are we settling for? As a citizen, it is disheartening to see our national flag, a symbol of our pride and unity, being treated with such lack of care. I urge the Government to take immediate action to hoist a national flag of good quality that can withstand the elements and do justice to the symbol of our nation.
I hope that the authorities will take my suggestion seriously and take prompt action.
Yours etc.,
Sudarshan Dasgupta,
Shillong-4.