No impasse in NEP implementation: Meghalaya CM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 23, 2023

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said there is impasse as far as implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) is concerned.

Speaking to media persons, Sangma said, “NEP implementation is a transition into a new system and transition into a new system is something that obviously is not so simple and hence, we need to give a time to transit into the new system and hence that process is on.”

“Is it easy? It is not because we need more rooms, we need more disciplines, we need more teachers, and all of these require more money. Almost to the tune of Rs 400-500 crores we require immediately to invest in this,” he added.

Referring to the deficit colleges, which are manned by the managing committees, Sangma said, “To what extent can we come in and play the role, these are all matters which cannot be decided in one go and it has got a huge impact. Therefore, there is nothing wrong. Let us understand that it is a process, it does take time as there’s a lot of funds involved. The question is how do we organize it and how do we move forward with it but the bottom line is there is no choice, we have to move forward.”

According to him, all colleges will also agree that it is the right thing to do and that the issue is how to do it.

Refusing to comment on the decisions taken by States like Kerala and Karnataka, the chief minister said, “And if you ask, most of the colleges in our State and most of the academicians, they will all agree that this is the right way forward and I myself have gone through it and I myself agree that it is the right way to move forward because it is a more holistic form of education and we cannot  be in an education system which has been there for the last 75 years. It is time to change in terms of the changing dynamics of the world.”

He further informed that the delegation of the MCTA, which has been protesting against implementation of NEP within this academic year, had also met him recently.

“They (MCTA) met me. They said let us do it next year. They are not against it. They are all saying is if you want us to implement well where is the money? Where is the classroom?…they have genuine concerns and issues which need to be resolved. It is not that they are against it, their concern is how to do it , who will do it, how much support will get from where and those are the areas which will work out as we move along,” he stated.