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Some of the issues which have become a cause of concern are listed below:-
(i) Urban-Rural disparity in terms of quality of educational institutions.
(ii) High drop-out rate
(iii) Problem of accessibility to elementary education.
(iv) Need for vocational education
(v) Over dependence on government for financial support
(vi) Need for job-oriented courses in colleges.
(vii) Need for technical education
The objectives behind the revamping of the state policy on education are:-
a. To assess the need for human resources in the state and to generate the same accordingly.
b. To develop human resources and bring about overall improvement in the quality of life.
c. To create a conducive environment for the students to learn more and rise to greater heights of knowledge.
d. To encourage Public Private Partnership in setting up different educational institutions
e. To encourage need base development in the field of technical, vocational and professional education through intensive motivation
f. To provide guidance and counseling to the students who want to pursue different branches of knowledge in their career.
Education is believed to be a ticket to a better life. It is the agency for collective and individual development and self determination.
In India, we tend to confuse education with literacy. Article 45 of part IV of the Constitution states that the state shall provide for free and compulsory education for children below the age of 14 years. The fundamental duties enshrined in part IV A of our Constitution which call for us to develop a scientific temper and spirit of enquiry and also to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity can only be effectively accomplished through a higher level of education.
The National Education Policy of 1968, 1986 and its revised version in 1992, the Kothari education commission 1966-64, the 93rd Constitutional amendment bill (now amended to the 86th) have all made claims of promoting education up to the age of 14 years as an obligation to the constitutional provision of directive Principle of State Policy. However, education, as a means of social development and empowerment usually starts after the age of 14 years or after class X or XII and it is also in this level of education that we can start reaping the benefits of the reservation policy as a means of social empowerment and upliftment. It can therefore, be safely said that both central and state governments have been stressing on literacy rather than education for socio-economic empowerment and development.
The real problem of making education a fundamental right especially for the poorer states like Meghalaya lies in the fact that the successive central government has always earmarked a very low budgetary allocation for education. In fact, since independence; education has never received more than 3.6 per cent of the G. D. P. while it deserves at least 10 per cent.
Meghalaya to a large extent implemented the National Education Policy (NEP) of 1986, which stressed on literacy, teacher training, number and distance of primary schools, etc. Mention must again be made on the national budgetary allocation for education. The 93rd Amendment Bill 2001 sought to provide a sum of Rs. 9800 crores per year for the next 10 years to implement the bill of making education a Fundamental Right. This is a mere increase of Rs.6000 crores from the existing 3800 crores of the G. D. P. whereas the Tapas Mujamdar Committee constituted by the Central government pointed out that the additional sum needed was 14,000 crores per year. This proposal would mean a mere 0.78 per cent of the GDP, merely 78 paise out of every hundred rupees of the GDP. The present UPA government in the Union Budget of 2003-04 has increased the sanction for education from Rs. 1512.00 crores to Rs 1951-25 crores instead of the required 14,000 cores. Anyway, the increase was a mere Rs. 339.00 crores, that too after canceling some very important schemes such as the ‘Operation Blackboard’ (Rs. 58.50 crores), the Central plan for the North Eastern States including Meghalaya (Rs. 388 crores), etc. It is a great regret that these important projects have been cancelled. The ‘Operation Blackboard’ formulated by the NEP 1986 revised in 1992 aims at providing proper classrooms, eight years teaching, school library, at least three teachers for every school. Since education is placed on the concurrent list and Meghalaya being a state that is not endowed with many resources, the state has to depend heavily on the central government for financial assistance. So if there are any existing problems/failures in the current system of education in Meghalaya, both the central and state governments are to be blamed.
The government, semi-government and private educational institutions in Meghalaya did not fulfill the criteria framed by the NEP 1986-92 like proper classroom school library, number of teachers, etc. A majority of government lower primary schools and private schools lack proper infrastructure. Many schools have just enough room for the classrooms, office and staff room, with no additional space for recreation, library and other extra curricular activities. Many private run schools in Meghalaya in the urban as well as rural areas are indulging in obvious extortion. At the lower classes, they have their own prescribed textbooks, which parents are compelled to purchase from the school itself or from any pre-arranged commissioned book dealer, the argument given by the schools being the need to maintain uniformity. However, the reality is that the very same books can be acquired from the open market at substantially lower rates. This is not only in the case of books, most schools also see to the sale of other items such as socks, shoes, uniforms, school bags in this same manner. The commissioned dealers in these cases often take advantage of the situation by putting a fixed price tag on these items which are compulsory for the students. This has forced many of the poorer parents to discontinue their children’s education resulting in the high rate of drop outs in the state.
All the self-styled elite educational institutions in Meghalaya are located in the urban areas especially Shillong. This unregulated system of self certifying (as the best) by these urban based educational institutions have further widened the urban-rural division and educational disparities. Non-investment in education by both the government and private players in the rural areas has deprived many aspiring students of education. The Meghalaya government has not even set up government colleges in every district of the state. Most of the schools in the urban and rural areas have been left to the private sector. This clearly shows the government’s apathetic attitude towards education in the state. However, the method by which these private players have been able to survive in this sector is by exploiting the existing unregulated system of education. Most of the teachers in these schools live on salaries ranging from Rs.1200 per month to a maximum of Rs.3000 per month on an average. It is a cause of shame to state that this salary scale is the same with government run schools. Though Meghalaya boasts of a 63.31 percent literacy rate, (government of India-statistical abstract 2001), this marvelous achievement has been possible only because of the high level of sacrifice on the part f the teacher.
