Shillong: The Education Minister of Meghalaya, Lahkmen Rymbui said that the State Government under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Conrad Kongkal Sangma and the Deputy Chief Minister,Prestone Tynsong have tried as best they can to see to the upliftment of the Education Department in the State.
Rymbui expressed this at the inauguration of Ri War College and Cultural Centre in Rangthylliang while accompanying the Deputy Chief Minister and also MLA of Pynursla, Prestone Tynsong.
Furthermore, Rymbui said that the Education Department is not an easy department to handle and comes with many difficulties with so much of balances required in so many aspects, however, with elation he said that this Government is the first Government since the achievement of Statehood to have succeeded in its first term itself in providing assistance to upto 9 People’s Colleges or Community College.
Rymbui also said that more than 1,400 people have been appointed permanent teachers under the Education Department, the main reason for this is because the Government wants to see to it that the students get their education.
Rymbui spoke on several matters in which he also expressed the difficulty pertaining to the payment of salaries, which as a Government, it is not sitting idly but seeks ways and means or in speaking with the Central Government to release the allocated funds sooner so that a timely payment of salaries is made.
With regards to scholarships, Rymbui said that there had been a time when not less than 40,000 students received scholarships, however he is filled with sadness when in the past year only more than 7,000 students received the benefit, which is mainly due to the process of having to link bank accounts with aadhar cards as per instructions of the Central Government.
However, through the hard work of the Government, in the past few years, special allocations were made for about more than 200 lower primary schools as it was found and seen that most of these schools do not have a proper foundation and upon seeing this, it got the Government thinking on how to improve the quality of teaching to students should this happen and the way is to elevate them to the level of Higher as well Secondary Schools.
Rymbui expressed also that on several occasions people only point to what the Government cannot do even though there were many succes stories in the past years, but many a times no one wants to look at the successes and concentrate only on the failures.
Turning to the Budget, Rymbui said that the highest allocation is given to the Education Department but 90% of the allocation is spent only in the payment of salaries and that too is insufficient and without taking into account the allocation from the Central Government.
Rymbui stated that in the past week he had been in Delhi to discuss the problems of the SSA teachers and with all due respect to the Central Government, it promptly released the first installment while the second installment is awaited because it understands that the expense is not just ₹10-20 crores in a month, however, the hardship is the reality that much more funds are required.
