Shillong, May 25: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today made a detailed presentation on the challenge and roadmap to improve the State’s Performance Grading Index (PGU) to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Acknowledging that the performance of the State has been at the bottom for the last three years, the Chief Minister stated that the Education Department has identified the gaps in learning outcomes and has taken measures to address these issues at their root.
He informed on the key structural concerns that has affected the educational outcomes, including unusual high number of schools, which has led to fragmented resource utilization, multiple layer of grant-in-aid, administrative complexities, which has existed for decades.
Amongst the six of the Northeastern States excluding Assam, Meghalaya with approximately 30 lakh population has close to 14600 schools, which is highest compared to States like Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
He informed that these factors had diverted focus away from improving the learning outcomes, and the government has now adopted measures, which will improve the quality of education in the State.
He informed that a major initiative has been undertaken to consolidate schools and optimise infrastructure. This will ensure better utilisation of resources, improved student-teacher ratios, and enhanced access to facilities such as laboratories and digital infrastructure.
He also informed that the State is streamlining multiple grant-in-aid (GIA) mechanisms to reduce administrative burden, enabling a stronger focus on academic quality and outcomes.
He also briefed the Union Minister on the landmark initiative of the government over the implementation of a unified pay structure, including structured pay for SSA teachers. “This reform aims to bring parity, improve morale, and enhance accountability across the teaching workforce,” the chief minister said in his presentation.
The Chief Minister also informed on the professional teachers training and development programmes, which is key toward ensuring quality education in the State.
“The introduction of DIKSHA-enabled professional development programmes and self-paced learning modules is empowering teachers with modern pedagogical tools and continuous learning opportunities”, he said.
Other interventions that were highlighted included implementation of NEP three language formula, compulsory learning of Khasi and Garo, no summative assessments till class 2, play based and discovery oriented learning and contextualized textbooks, bag less day every alternative day for foundational stage and no textbooks for pre-schools and only resource materials for teaches.
On rationalization of LP schools, he informed that out of 14582 schools, 3198 schools have been deleted for optimum utilisation of resources and community integrated skill learning has been introduced, where students learn about practical skills on health and physical education from family members, community experts or mentors.
He also gave detailed presentation on “CM LEAD Fellowship”, which was recently launched. This is structured initiative to strengthen implementation capacity in education system. By placing skilled professionals at the district level, it will support planning, coordination and monitoring of key reforms, driving stronger execution, better coordination and sustained system support. Under this initiative, 12 fellows will be placed across the 12 districts of the State.
Other important intervention taken in the State include setting up of Meghalaya Teachers Training Academy (MTTA), an exclusive teacher training academy to improve the continuous professional development (CPD) hours in the State.
MTTA will be implementing teachers education component of Samagra Shiksha.
“With a clear roadmap and strong political will, Meghalaya is poised to overcome its challenges and significantly improve its PGI performance in the coming years. The Government reiterates its commitment to ensuring that every child in the State has access to quality education and opportunities for a better future,” the chief minister said.
