Staff Reporter

Shillong, Sept 20: The physical progress of the construction of the science and commerce college at Mawphlang is 72 per cent.

Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma in his reply to a starred question tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday informed that the project was sanctioned at Rs 36.55 crore on June 30, 2017, out of which Rs 14.815 crore has been spent so far.

He said that the stipulated date for completion of the project is March next year.

He said that the classes will commence in this college after the completion of the construction of buildings and on completion of academic procedures.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, Sept 19: Over 510 lower primary and secondary schools across the State are in a dilapidated condition.

This was informed by Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma in his reply to a starred question tabled in the Assembly today.

Out of this, 495 are government lower primary schools and 15 are government secondary schools, Sangma said.

He said the 43 schools are covered for construction/renovation under phase 1, 20 – phase 2 and 332 – phase 3.

He said that the remaining 115 schools will be proposed for construction/renovation in the future phases.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, Sept 19: Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma today said district school education officer (DSEO), Ri Bhoi has been asked to conduct regular monitoring and supervision on the JNV, school, Niangbari to ensure the incident of students falling sick is not repeated.

“The state education department has also taken serious note on the matter and has instructed the district school education officer, Ri Bhoi district to conduct regular monitoring and supervision on the said school and also to ensure that such incident is not repeated,” Sangma said while replying to a call attention motion moved by UDP MLA from Nongpoh Mayralborn Syiem in the Assembly.

He said the complaint of the residential students of the particular school has no connection with the PM Poshan (Mid-Day Meal) Scheme under the State of Meghalaya.

He informed after observing visuals that appeared on a news channel on July 26 that students of the school fell sick, immediately on July 27, the deputy commissioner deputed the Food Safety Officer, Ri Bhoi District, Nongpoh and a report submitted by FSO along with the executive magistrate to collect the samples of water and food for testing and conduct an enquiry on the matter.

Thereafter, the samples of water and food collected were sent to the state food testing laboratory, Pasteur Hills, Government of Meghalaya on the same day for analysis.

On August 2, the Food Safety Officer was again deputed to conduct a surprise checking inspection on the quality of food given to the students of JNV, Niangbari, during dinner time and to take samples of the same and get it tested and report has been submitted by FSO and food samples served to the students on that day were collected and sent to Mitra SK Private Limited, Building P-48, Udayan Industrial Estate, 3 PAgladanga Road, Kolkata West Bengal for analysis.

With regards to water supply, Sangma said a letter has been forwarded to the PHE department to prepare an estimate of a deep bore well construction at JNVSchool, Niangbari and the deposit work estimate for providing additional water supply at JNV School (proposed by drilling of bore well, construction of storage tank, pump house etc) amounting to Rs 33.86, 240 have been prepared and submitted by the EE PHE department and the same has been forwarded to Principal JNV, Niangbari for onward approval from the competent authority.

Based on the inquiry reports, the deputy commissioner also issued strict instructions to the school principal of JNV, Niangbari for compliance to ensure that only fresh and hygienic food is provided to the students.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Friday addressed the National Seminar on “Representation of Women of North East India in Multi–Disciplinary Discourse” at Don Bosco College, Tura.

The seminar was attended by scholars from different parts of the country, and papers were presented. The seminar saw the participation of Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma as well. The keynote address was delivered by Prof Sukalpa Bhattacharjee of the NEHU Shillong campus.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the government has conceptualized a programme to empower women through different economic activities. He further informed that through the SHG movement, the government is ensuring that women are made financially independent.

He told the gathering of a situation, where young women were at high risk due to childbirth without spacing of three years and some young women even giving birth to more than five children by the age of 23 years.

“So we had to come up with a solution which is long-lasting that ensures the health and well-being of a mother. The Safe Motherhood Programme addresses the concern of women. We have also introduced intervention that empowers women financially through income generating activities initiated through Self Help Group,” he added, while stating that economic empowerment of women is of paramount concern of the government.

He further informed that Meghalaya is one of the few states in the country, where 95 per cent of the women from rural areas are part of the Self Help Group movement. He said that there are over 4 lakh women under the SHG movement in the State, which was around 35,000 thousand prior to 2018.

He further said that the government is working with a positive mindset to provide different opportunities to enable the economic empowerment of women. He said that there are different problems confronting women but the government is working with an approach to provide effective solutions to those problems.

“Having a positive mindset does not mean that we overlook the problem. However, we come up with a perspective to address the concern and improve things. It is a challenge but we have to come up with an approach to ensure real change,” he stressed.

Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma, spoke at length on the contribution of women in different fields. He also urged the women to continue to overcome challenges and stand tall in making their contribution to society. He also said that women have better convincing power and their active participation is very important in different sectors.

Minister-in-charge of Education Rakkam A Sangma has informed that the government is waiting for the Governor to give his assent to the Captain Williamson Sangma Technical University (Amendment) Bill, 2023 passed by the State Assembly recently for setting up of a State University.

“We have just passed the Act in the Assembly and once the Governor gives his assent, we will work out the modalities on how to go ahead and to start the State University at the earliest possible,” Sangma told reporters here.

He said that having a state university after 50 years of statehood is a milestone for the government.

The Captain Williamson Sangma State University (Amendment) Act, 2023 proposes to amend the Captain Williamson Sangma Technical University Act.

The objective of the Act is to have State Universities catering to both higher and technical education offering higher education in the fields of humanities, general sciences, engineering, physical sciences, life sciences, commerce, performing arts, professional courses, technology and related areas.

It will also provide scope for research, advancement and dissemination of knowledge therein.

The minister said the problem related to the CUET will be resolved to a great extent once all colleges are affiliated to the State University.

“Not only about the CUET issue, it is for better education facilities for our students. Due to certain limitations, we have to ask for an exemption and we cannot ask for an exemption again and again. Therefore, we have to find a way forward and a better solution for our students,” Sangma added.

The state government has decided to appoint temporary teachers in government lower primary schools, which are functioning without teachers.

Informing this here, Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said that there are more than 1002 vacancies in the government’s lower primary schools.

“In view of the delay in the recruitment of regular teachers, we have decided to appoint temporary teachers in such schools,” he said while adding all teachers to be appointed will be MTET passed.

The minister said the process of appointing regular teachers may take some time due to the preparation of the roster system.

“The education department and its officials are working day and night to complete the process of giving all data to the personnel department at the earliest but it is not easy,” he added.

He said that there are over 26 lower primary schools in South Garo Hills which are presently without teachers.

Meanwhile, the minister informed that the government will be constructing new school buildings for over 117 lower primary schools in the next 2-3 months and will be taking up repairs of over 1,000 schools.

It’s a strange feeling being a mother of a young child in these chaotic times. COVID and the lockdown changed the narrative of what being a parent means. As a mother of an only child, I still allowed him a lot of freedom, but I was monitoring him like a tigress. Anyone or anything that meant him harm was going to have to go through me. Ray—more important than anyone else just because he is my son and it’s not
just viruses and pedophiles I have to protect him from. There are bullies, bigots fanatics, stereotypes, peer pressure, and an outdated education system… this can take up the whole broadsheet. But you get what I mean. I am (or was rather) the tigress teaching her cub how to survive. This is a story of how Ray showed me that I have nothing to worry about.

2022 — 2023 proved to be a big year for us. We finally decided to travel. Nothing was going to stop us. Our first trip was to Mumbai during the monsoon which opened up his world. He saw the sea for the first time and it shook him. His face changed. No geography lesson came close to the real thing. Our second trip was to Goa. This was a family thing and he befriended the sea this time—tasting its water, challenging the waves, and contemplating swimming across to Dubai (on the condition that I (accompanied him). The sea was kind this time and Ray appreciated her generosity.

One day though we decided to take him to a waterpark. He was very excited. The moment we got there, he jumped into the paddling pool and tried the little slides. He tried to swim in one of the deeper pools and was partially successful. I was perfectly happy. I hate public poolsand the place seemed safe enough to not need me to be in the water with him. So I let go of the tigress and allowed him to run around and
have fun with little supervision. Just when I was getting comfortable, I suddenly saw him running to the giant slides. There were three giant slides in this particular park. I ran after him. When we got to the top, he looked down all three of them and chose the one he wanted to slide down. I grilled the attendant there about its safety and he was able to assure me that the worst thing that could happen was that Ray
would get stuck.

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himself down to the end of the slide was probably one of the most annoying things the slippy slide attendant had to witness. I was laughing and took out my phone to take a video (For my own entertainment only. Am not sharing it with anyone).

Then he came back up for the last time—his time for the third slide. For this particular one, the attendant told him that he had to be on his tummy and slide down head first. Ray got on the sliding mat and was listening intently to the instructions and then he just said, “No.” My heart broke a little. I really wanted him to try doing something that scared him—something outside his comfort zone.

The attendant (who spoke only Hindi to Ray BTW) kept selling the third slide to him. I was also pushing him to give it a go. He got on the mat again and looked down the giant slide and again got on his feet and said, “No. I don’t want to do this.” I kept quiet. I did not want to force him, but at the same time, I really wanted him to face his fear. So I remained silent waiting for him to decide. The attendant, however, was not silent at all. He said, “Agar yeh nahi kar paoge to bohut kuch nahi kar paoge zindagi mein (if you cannot do this then you will not be
able to do a lot of things in life).”

Ray looked at him—this 40-year-old or so male attendant of the giant slide in a water park in Goa and said, “Main sirf dus saal hoon. (I’m just ten years old).”

He got off the slide and walked down to join the rest of the group. The tigress in me smiled and retreated. I just looked at the attendant apologetically and walked away quite proud that Ray took a stand and voiced it so eloquently.

(This piece has been written by Dalariti Nongpiur with illustrations by Hazel Kharkongor)