Shangpliang slams govt over ‘poor’ education infra

SHILLONG, Sep 16: Trinamool Congress MLA HM Shangpliang criticised the Education department over poor school infrastructure. Moving the call attention notice on a news item published in The Shillong Times, Shangpliang lamented that Meghalaya was ranked very low in the PGI ranking for the second time. Expressing concern over the high dropout rate, he said it is 44.86% in South West Garo Hills, 37.14% in South Garo Hills, 34.09% in North Garo Hills and 30.86% in South West Khasi Hills. Terming the situation as alarming, Shangpliang said there are several school buildings which need to be repaired. Quoting another report from The Shillong Times, he said a teacher in a village in Garo Hills has remained absent from his school in the last three years but is drawing his salary. He asked the government to take action against the teacher. As Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui was laughing at this moment, Shangpliang asked him not to laugh. He said Rymbui cannot behave like this. He said the Education department is in a mess and asked the government to come out with a blueprint. In his reply, Rymbui claimed the state has made marked improvement in several indicators of infrastructure in schools. On the PGI scores, he said in 2017-18, Meghalaya scored 584 and the numbers went up to 610 in 2018-19 and 648 in 2019-20. He was confident the state will cross the 700-mark in 2022-23. Stating that more than 1,000 schools will be renovated, the Education Minister said the government will sanction funds for the renovation of not less than 80% state-run schools.