No decision yet on reopening of schools, says Meghalaya Education Minister

Guwahati: Lahkmen Rymbui, the education minister of Meghalaya, has said that it is too early to predict when the schools will re-open since the Centre had directed all educational institutions to remain closed till August 31.

On Thursday, Rymbui told reporters that the Centre is closely monitoring the situation and the Meghalaya government will be duly informed if the Centre comes out with the notification on the re-opening of schools.

Responding to a query, he said that the State Government will have to wait for the directives from the Centre as far as helping students who are appearing for the board examination is concerned.

At the same time, Lahkmen Rymbui informed that the Meghalaya Government has prepared the modalities with regards to the reopening of the schools. However, the responsibility of deciding when to open schools lies fairly and squarely on the Centre, he said.

It may be mentioned that the students who will be appearing the board examination are in a dilemma as online classes are unable to cater to their needs especially students hailing from the rural areas.

Admitting that there is a disparity when it comes to online classes since the students in rural villages do not have access to the internet, the minister added that online teaching will not be able to replace the conventional mode of teaching in classrooms.

Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Education Minister welcomed the Union Cabinet's decision to set up the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) while asserting that language won't be a barrier as the youth from the State are cultured to appear in English, Hindi and other languages.

When asked if the students of the State will be facing problem since Khasi and Garo languages are yet to be included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian constitution, the Education Minister said that there are 28 recognized languages but the Union government chose only 12 and taking that into consideration, it is a fair deal.

The NRA, which seeks to replace multiple examinations conducted by different recruiting agencies for selection to government jobs, will conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to non-gazetted posts in government and public sector banks.

According to the Centre, the CET will be conducted in 12 major Indian languages.

Also Watch: WATCH: How Kaziranga Vets Cared For Rescued Rhino