No proposal to provide smartphones to students: Rymbui

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 5, 2021

Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui on Thursday said there is no proposal to provide smartphones to students in the state to address the issue of digital divide in education due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Rymbui however told reporters that if the government is to provide smartphones to over 34,000 students, who were declared successful by the MBOSE in the SSLC examination, it will cost the state not less than Rs 150 crore.

“And that also it is not that once you provide the gadgets it is okay but you have to have the data which will also cost. Not only that, we also have the problem of network connectivity,” he said.

According to him, such challenges are not connected to Meghalaya alone but all over the country.

The education minister also congratulated all the students who despite the challenges faced due to COVID-19 could clear the examination.

The state recorded a pass percentage of 52.91 per cent in the SSLC examination, which saw a slight increase when compared to last year’s 50.31 per cent.

When asked, Rymbui said that there are two-pronged strategies to improve the performance of the students of which one is to improve the quality of teaching and education and the other is to help as much as possible that students could pass their exams.

“…it is not only in the hands of the government, it is in the hands of the students, parents, teachers and the government if we work together and synchronize our minds together to help our children I think will achieve a higher percentage,” he added.

With South West Garo Hills registering the lowest pass percentage at 23.01 percent, Rymbui however said the performance of Garo Hills region is always below par.

He informed that in view of this the government had formed a committee for academic evaluation in Garo Hills and the same had submitted a report which calls for some interventions to address the issue.

The minister however said the government cannot do much as the schools could not be conducted. “So this process (of evaluation) is already in the mind of the government.

I think this government is the first who analysed why this happened so the report has already been submitted by the committee in 2020 and we have already implemented some of recommendations but we could not do all as we need classroom teachings to start and movement of people from one place to another need to start – so we will do what needs to be done,” he added.