Govt to come up with education commission

“As we move along we will come up with some kind of a mechanism in that line. I am giving you a hint by telling you that we are coming up with some kind of an education commission that will look into these concerns also in a larger scale,” Sangma told reporters when responding to a query on the school managing committees (SMCs) failure to contribute to the welfare of their teachers.

“Yes, the overall mechanism to streamline things and to improve the overall functioning of ad hoc schools has to be looked into but it will be done at an appropriate time,” he asserted.

The issue came up after the private ad hoc teachers are staging their ongoing indefinite protest by sleeping in the streets demanding the government to enhance their salary by Rs 18,000 and consider a 5% increment

Sangma said that it is the SMCs that run the schools, it is not the government and that they are privately owned and run schools and the government only aids them.

He also cited that situation should be compared with that of private hospitals. “You can see it is not fully government’s responsibility to look into those aspects but yes we are concerned about education and we feel that the teachers and the different SMCs are doing their part and they are adding to the overall education sectors and therefore, the government would like to support and hence the government is supporting. How the SMCs run, that is individual SMCs look out, I don’t have any comments on that,” he added.

When asked what action the government will take against SMCs for having no control over their teachers since the grant-in-aid is being given to them, the chief minister said, “You are right, the SMCs are the organizations to whom the fund is given and that is how the structure has been. These are privately run. Now the appointment is made by the SMCs and they are responsible to run it.”

He said that there are concerns, there are issues and the SMCs have to work on those concerns adding that some are doing well and some are not doing that well.

“Therefore, we are in consideration to have some kind of a body, some kind of a commission that would look into these concerns and issues in the education sector overall. The government is doing its part to fund, to support these private teachers. However, they are not appointed by the government but by the SMCs and hence it is the SMCs responsibility,” he maintained.

Stating that there are lots of room for improvement, the chief minister said, “We hope we will be able to see that while we enhance the grant-in-aid to these schools, we will also see the improvement in the overall management of these schools.”

By Our Reporter