In the year 2018, Meghalaya has joined the league of states that have created their own education policy which was brought into action after the approval from the members of the state cabinet to the Education Policy 2018. This has helped the state to bring in various changes in the education system that are required for the comprehensive development of the student. In a statement made by the Education Minister of Meghalaya, Lahkmen Rymbui, they plan to bring in various reforms to the education policy of the state such as training the teachers, upgrading the curriculum of the schools as well as improving the infrastructure along with an improved and streamlined education system.
Sources say that steps have been taken for the improvement of the curriculum. One such step that has been taken is to adopt the NCERT syllabus for commerce and science streams in classes 11 and 12. The schools had been following the curriculum made by the Meghalaya Board of School of Education (MBOSE). Lahkmen Rymbui has stated that this change was brought in so as to help their students to attempt the NCERT Based entrance examinations like the Joint Entrance Test (JEE) the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).
The Education Ministry of Meghalaya has also decided to incorporate more localised content in the curriculum of the schools such as Handicrafts, etc. These courses will be provided as part of community-centric vocational courses.
Lahkmen Rymbui states that education is an ever-changing element of today’s world. The curriculum of the schools should work towards updating their curriculum in order to be at the top of the level. He also adds that for this reason, there will be a committee that will be reviewing the curriculum from time to time and make the necessary changes to the curriculum. They will also be providing new native vocational courses along with the inclusion of local languages as well.
According to the education policy, schools will also be receiving autonomy as well as allowing them to create their own contingency fund to which the community will contribute. Lahkmen Rymbui has stated that the schools should be given the flexibility to create their own contingency fund. This will give them the opportunity to not be dependent on the funds that they receive from the government. The schools will be able to use the contingency fund to allow them to develop themselves as they wish to and upgrade their facilities.
Also Read: Madras University to Provide Free Education to Poor Students
As per the education policy, the state has also planned to streamline the education system in schools of the state. This is a difficult task as the schools in Meghalaya are run by different stakeholders and other factors. Rymbui has stated that there are some schools in Meghalaya where there are less than 20 children enrolled. For this, they have decided that there should be a collaboration between such schools so as to best utilise all the assets and infrastructure of the schools. They are currently working on building the necessary guidelines for the collaboration.
Also Read: Indian Business School and Moscow Business School Join Hands for Research and Executive Programmes
Lahkmen Rymbui has also added that various steps have been taken for the training of the teachers in Meghalaya. He states that there have been more than 3500 teachers who have been trained over the past couple of years.