Iterating the government’s commitment to improving the overall education scenario in Meghalaya, chief minister Conrad Sangma said a little over 15 percent of the state’s budget is spent on education every year despite numerous challenges in the sector.
“Education has been an area where, as a government, we have focused a lot. It is one of the most challenging sectors,” Conrad Sangma told a gathering of academicians and students at a function to commemorate the silver jubilee of Mawsynram Border Area College, close to the India-Bangla border in the East Khasi Hills district.
“But we have taken up the challenge and working towards improving education through various interventions – whether it is the education policy, the investment in government school buildings, the opening up of people’s college, or the different support that we give towards infrastructure even to private schools and colleges.”
So happy to be in Mawsynram today to partake in the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Mawsynram Border Area College.
MBAC is a pioneering institution that has delivered exemplary service to the underserved border areas & the less advantaged communities.@dpradhanbjp @EduMinOfIndia pic.twitter.com/XlZ2XKBQtb
— Conrad K Sangma (@SangmaConrad) September 27, 2022
Out of the Rs 16,000 crore budget spends by the Meghalaya government, over Rs 2500 crore is spent for the running expenditure of different schools, colleges and over and above that, other infrastructure investments are made every year, the chief minister said.
“So clearly from the Meghalaya government side, the kind of importance that is given to education can be seen by the amount of budget that we spend on education,” he added.
Conrad Sangma also said that the Meghalaya government was “exploring the best possible way” to upscale higher education in rural areas through various interventions, either by creating new infrastructure or by increasing the capacity of the higher educational institutes to handle increased student intake.
“If we look at the concentration of colleges you will see a large number of them in Shillong or Tura and other district quarters. And hence the youth living in the rural areas have less opportunity to get enrolled in higher studies due to the lesser number of institutions in rural areas. The government is working earnestly to change this and to ensure that our students don’t miss out on the opportunity for higher learning,” Sangma underscored.
