Meghalaya Cabinet approves new rules for setting up of schools, grant-in-aid

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 28, 2020

The state Cabinet on Thursday approved the new rules for granting of permission to open new schools and prescribed norms & criteria for extending financial assistance to schools in the state.

After the meeting, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui told reporters that the decision was taken in order to streamline the education sector in the state.

“We have approved new rules for granting permission and recognition to open schools in the state. We have also come up with prescribed norms and criteria for providing grant-in-aid to the various schools,” Rymbui said.

Asked, the minister said most of the schools especially in urban areas have only building infrastructures without playgrounds and proper parking facility. He also pointed out that some of the school buildings do not even meet the standard norms as per the disaster management rules.

Rymbui said the main criteria in the new rules is that persons or school managing committees should have at least 2.5 acre (urban area) and 3.5 acre (rural area) of land for opening of new school.  

“All buildings should also meet safety criteria besides obtaining a no objection certificate from the deputy commissioner. The sponsoring body should also have 3-month contingency fund to meet salary expenditure of the teachers,” he said.

He said schools, which are performing well, will be given affiliation by the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE) within 2 years.

On the other hand, the education minister said that the state government in the past has been providing grant-in-aid to over 900 schools (deficit pattern, adhoc) without any prescribed norms.

“Due to this, less deserving schools are getting the grant-in-aid whereas some deserving schools which have performed well for past 30 years have been denied. Therefore, the government has decided to streamline by coming up with prescribed norms and criteria in this regard,” he said.

Rymbui however maintained that the grant-in-aid will be extended to eligible schools as and when the state government has the resources.

Whether the decision is also connected to the government’s move to close down schools with ‘single-digit’ enrollment of students, the education minister said, “All are interlinked.”

It may be mentioned here that there are over 221 lower primary and upper primary schools which include government and government-aided that are having single-digit enrollment of students in the state.