Rush of students: High schools to be upgraded to higher sec schools

SHILLONG, April 6: The state government has decided to upgrade all secondary schools to higher secondary schools to absorb the huge number of students who have passed their SSLC examinations.
Referring to the SSLC results announced on Saturday, Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said, “The 87.1% pass rate means an additional 30,000 students will be rushing for admission into Class XI. Therefore, we will be giving NOC (no-objection certificate) to all the schools which want to run the higher secondary sections.”
“The government secondary schools will also be upgraded to the higher secondary level. We will encourage higher secondary schools to increase their intake to absorb the students,” he added.
The minister said schools from rural, urban as well as semi-urban areas have all performed well this time and the students should be provided equal opportunities.
He disclosed that the state government is working to give grades to schools based on their performance. He, however, did not share the details of it stating that it is an ongoing process.
Sangma said absorbing these students will be a challenge for the government. In this regard, he said some higher secondary schools will also have to start morning classes.
He said the government will direct all institutions not to start the process of admission immediately. He said it was for the first time that the results were announced nearly two months ahead of schedule.
“We want the students to celebrate with their families and relax,” Sangma said, adding that the government is in favour of a uniform academic session and it wants the same to start by mid-May.
Thanking MBoSE, Sangma said the government has identified those schools which are not performing well for some time.
“We visited them last year and assured them of our support. We will motivate them to work harder,” he said.
Meanwhile, most of the top schools running higher secondary sections have begun the admission process. Some have, in fact, completed it on Saturday itself. Some in Shillong have announced the commencement of Class XI academic session in the last week of April.
Govt to seek justification from schools on high fee structure
Sangma expressed concern over the high fee structure in private educational institutions.
“We will write to them and issue them a notice to justify why they are charging high fees. We will write immediately to see if the fee structure of all the schools, especially those supported by the government, is not very high,” he said.
He said many schools in Meghalaya are supported by the state government. He requested them to rationalise the fee structure stating that many brilliant students with a humble background struggle to take admission due to the high fee structure.