SHILLONG, May 27: The All India Save Education Committee, Meghalaya Chapter, which recently released the Peoples’ Education Policy (PEP) as an alternative to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, has now come up with a counter to Education Minister Rakkam Sangma’s recent statements vis-à-vis the PEP.
The AISEC views the NEP 2020 as a policy aimed at privatisation of education making it unaffordable for large sections of Meghalaya’s children to access education.
Batskhem Myrboh, general secretary of the AISEC Meghalaya Chapter, while appreciating the Education Minister’s response to the Draft PEP, said the group seeks to inform the minister that AISEC believes that Meghalaya deserves an education policy that is best suited to the needs and interests of the children and youth of the state; hence the department should not blindly accept the NEP 2020.
Myrboh further stated that the demand of the AISEC Meghalaya is that education should be a state subject as each state has its own strengths and weaknesses that ought to be addressed by a policy that is nuanced in favour of students’ needs.
Stating that the AISEC Meghalaya is concerned about the hasty introduction of the four-year under-graduate programme (FYUP) without increasing the number of teachers, Myrboh stated that this had added to the pressure on both teachers and students.
“Many additional papers have been introduced which were earlier taught at the postgraduate (PG) level but are now added to the undergraduate (UG) syllabus, with elements of research also introduced without appointing or training the teachers in research methodology,” Myrboh said adding that the increase in the number of core papers from 8 to 15 up to the 3rd year (an increase of nearly 100 per cent); increasing the number of credits, and adding another year to the UG program has strained the teachers and will adversely affect the performance of students thereby forcing them to drop the program halfway.
AISEC Meghalaya’s interaction with some principals has revealed that colleges are already experiencing increased dropouts (though the NEP designs to camouflage the issue as exit).
AISEC feels that an intensive survey is needed to assess the real situation. AISEC also sees no reason why students desiring to study in Meghalaya have to sit for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). If the Meghalaya government had resisted hasty implementation of the NEP 2020 the agonising problems faced by students and parents could have been avoided.
AISEC urged the state government not to impose the NEP at the school level in haste.
“AISEC Meghalaya is deeply concerned about the state of school education, especially in rural Meghalaya where the dropout rates are already high. Pending the final policy document which will be ready in few months, we are sharing the draft PEP with the state government,” the AISEC secretary said, adding that the organisation is ready to work hand-in-hand with the state government as long as the latter is committed to an education policy that is pro-people.
