By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 16: The state’s Education Department will constitute a fact-finding committee to study the factors behind low enrolment, proxy teachers, and dilapidated school buildings.
The members of this committee comprising officers will visit each school in the state to understand the problems before preparing the report, Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said on Monday.
Admitting that there are many schools with no enrolment, a high dropout rate, proxy teachers, and more teachers than students, he said Meghalaya’s lower primary schools are not up to the mark.
He said the teachers will have to share the responsibility for the high dropout rate, and focus on their duties and performance to ensure quality teaching. “The high dropout rates and lowest PG rank are directly connected with the performance of the teachers,” Sangma said.
Stating that the SSA schools mostly have a high dropout rate, he said the government is not intimidated by teachers who seek salary enhancement instead of focusing on improving the education scenario.
“Many teachers have been shifted from schools with no enrolment. If teachers are not interested in attending school and teaching, it is better for them to resign,” he said.
Earlier, the minister said the SSA teachers have been demanding a pay hike for quite some time now.
“The Centre used to bear 90% of the salary component. It now provides 70% while the state has to pay 30%. The government of India is cutting down its share of the salary component by 5% every year and we are working on a formula to address this issue,” Sangma said.
