By Toki Blah
The most interesting and fascinating aspect of the 21st Century is of a world driven by technology. Information Technology (IT) at the press of a computer keyboard button, creates and stores data. Today we have progressed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) where machines end up making up our minds for us. We today find ourselves trying to keep up with a knowledge system that is galloping almost at lightning speed. This brings in a very interesting question. As indigenous people from the three major tribes of Meghalaya, how did our forefathers, who inhabited these hills thousands of years ago, uphold and maintain their knowledge system; pass it on to us and which we still revere to this day? I believe they did it through a very simple process – through the art of storytelling! Families of yore gathered round the hearth where elders imparted knowledge and passed on wisdom through folklore or skillful allegories to listening youngsters who did the same when their turn as elders arrived. Stories imbibed in the listeners the skills of agriculture, hunting, the importance of maintaining a good relationship with nature and of the human value systems that shaped behaviour towards one another.
It was purely an informal and rudimentary education system but it coped and got along with the crucial act of handing down learning on which survival depended upon. Today learning, or education as we call it, is carried out in a different platform called a classroom. Question is has the classroom delivered the service it is supposed to provide? The focus of this article will be on this modern aspect of learning within the context of today’s classrooms and with especial attention towards an efficacious Education Policy for Meghalaya.
India attained Independence in 1947 with a literacy rate of only 18% and that too only with the urban elite. The rest 82% comprising mostly agriculturalists and women were classed as illiterate. Clearly something fast had to be done to make education the cornerstone of social and economic development for the country and towards this end India got its 1st National Policy on Education of 1968. The second attempt to further improve our education system was the National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986 followed again in 2020 by the National Education Policy (NEP), the current policy under discussion. It must be made clear from the onset that the NEP, now 4 years in implementation, has come under severe scrutiny and criticism and has been found wanting in many critical aspects.
First and foremost, the NEP, a crucial Policy, on which the future lives of our children will depend on, was passed simply by a mere Cabinet decision! IT DID NOT EVEN GO TO PARLIAMENT where it should have been debated by elected representatives of the people. Secondly, Education as a subject falls under the Concurrent List but states were never consulted in the making of this all important National Policy. As a consequence, the hasty implementation of NEP 2020 is already becoming apparent and advanced states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala are resisting its obvious fault lines. Other stakeholders of Education ranging from educationists, teachers associations, parent bodies and ordinary citizens who value education, have also come together under the umbrella of the All India Save Education Committee (AISEC) and on May 22, 2025 released the draft People’s Education Policy (PEP): An Alternative to the NEP 2020. It’s an attempt to come up with a bottoms-up, stakeholder driven approach to an Education Policy best suited for our needs, rather than a top down Policy decided by a few Hindutva ideology driven individuals that seek to centralise and communalise education. So lets see what the Meghalaya Chapter of PEP has to offer us and our children that is different from the NEP.
What is obvious is that the NEP is an attempt to reframe Indian Education in the contours of the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) that is rooted in ancient Vedic perceptions. Nothing wrong in this as long as it doesn’t undermine the foundational principles of universal ,democratic, secular and scientific modern education which is the norm of the day. Sadly the NEP has chosen to ignore this. Sadly it attempts to append modern 21st century India with one particular dominant religion and culture which seeks to introduce unscientific ideas and papers in the curriculum. It also singularly tends to discount history by ignoring the contributions of the Muslims and the British to the composite nature of today’s India. It is this communal profile of the NEP that makes it so hazardous and incompatible with emerging educational needs.
The PEP 2025 on the other hand takes a rational and objective view of the contributions of our ancient scholars, rulers, and religious leaders while also recognizing the immense beneficiation by modern scholars, especially in the sphere of science, architecture, the arts, technology and in the introduction of an educational system designed to deliver. It also takes into consideration the knowledge systems of the marginalized communities whose contributions were never recognized by the Brahminical knowledge system. PEP demands that education should be separated from religion, and all efforts by the government to communalize the curricula and syllabi should end. Taken from this perspective, the PEP is a serious draft proposal that should attract the attention of all those who desire the well-being and growth of an inclusive Education Policy for 21st Century Meghalaya.
It shall not be possible within the short parameters of this essay to list out all the shortcomings of the NEP nor the alternatives as offered in the PEP. Because of space constraint we shall leave out Higher and Technical Education but try to highlight issues that pertain to School Education, as it exists in Meghalaya. First there is this crying need for quality education right from pre-school where learning impacts most on an impressionable age of a student. It is shocking therefore to note that the NEP proposes that Aganwadis, with a mere 6 months training, be made wholly responsible for providing knowledge in pre-schools for rural areas! Are our rural toddlers cattle or sheep to be treated this way? The PEP totally rejects this absurd approach and demands instead that the government should take the responsibility of establishing pre-schools with educated and trained teachers and should regulate the fee structure in the private pre-school ventures operating in the urban areas.
Secondly there should be no compromise in imparting quality education to our school children and for this to happen the need for trained and qualified teachers, at all levels of schooling, cannot be overemphasized. In developing countries like India, which are socially and culturally so diverse, teachers have to play multiple roles and hence become a role model to all. PEP 2025 feels that, in India, which suffers from poverty and different kinds of social discrimination, it is not enough to opt for only one type of pedagogy. The teachers should be conversant with multiple types of pedagogy and use appropriate pedagogy to meet the particular requirements of the students. No one should be appointed as a teacher at any level without the required qualifications and training in the art and science of teaching. It is required of teachers to inculcate democratic, secular and scientific temper among the students. This is a requirement that Meghalaya education must seriously wrestle with.
In conclusion it must be accepted that education is a lifelong exercise where students continue to learn and absorb knowledge that helps them get along with a better life. At the school level understanding of what is being taught therefore assumes critical import. The need to simplify the medium of teaching (language) here assumes a decisive position. In this context the role of one’s Mother tongue as the medium of instruction should receive ‘Across the Board’ consensus. The PEP believes that learning in one’s Mother tongue allows students to grasp concepts more easily, express their thoughts more clearly and encourage them to think critically. In this connection, especially for our rural Tribal students at the primary and school level, can we turn back to storytelling as a means to teach? Can trained teachers, especially of Science and Maths (considered as thorny and dull by many students) be made to introduce and teach their subjects based perhaps on stories of scientists and their achievements; of famous mathematicians and how they contributed to the advancement of civilization? Stories linked to the subject being taught that can kindle excitement; the spirit of curiosity, enquiry and critical thinking in our students? Teaching that pushes the student into asking questions?
We need to imbibe in our teachers the need to foster the spirit of questioning not the reverse as what is happening today. Secondly, English still plays a vital role as a link language, both nationally and internationally. Historically, English has been widely accepted and has become integral to Meghalaya’s educational and professional landscape. It provides access to global knowledge, serves as a medium for intellectual exchange, and facilitates international communication. It has helped countless numbers of our educated youngsters find jobs and lifelihoods in or outside the country. Therefore, English should continue to be taught from the early stages of education to enable students to engage with global developments in science, technology, and the emerging challenges of Artificial Intelligence.
Having said this and whatever else mentioned above, the request is made here for those who subscribe to the ideals of universal, democratic , scientific and secular education , to please join us and become part of the AISEC Meghalaya Chapter. We also invite such people to contribute their thoughts, opinions and suggestions on how to make this Meghalaya Chapter more aggressive and relevant to what we teach and inculcate. Feel free to send your contributions to the press or through the media. Alternately you can directly communicate with us on our mail ID which is – [email protected]