SHILLONG, Aug 24: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) asked
the Meghalaya State government to intervene and put an end
to the present stalemate between the Meghalaya College
Teachers’ Association (MCTA) and the Vice Chancellor of North
Eastern Hill University (NEHU) over the implementation of the
National Education Policy (NEP) in Meghalaya.
“Therefore, in the interest of the students and the education in
the State we would like to urge upon the state government to
intervene into the matter, and put an end to the present
stalemate between the MCTA and the VC of NEHU,” VPP chief
Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit said in a statement.
He said the VPP is extremely concerned with the present
impasse that existed between the MCTA and the NEHU vice
chancellor about the latter's decision to implement the
National Education Policy 2020 in this academic session.
Basaiawmoit said the party is also concerned about the plight
of the students and the effectiveness of teaching if certain
issues are not addressed, e.g., infrastructure, increase in the
number of teachers, etc, before the new policy is put in place.
“The party also caution the people and especially the students
not to be influenced by those who wish to implement this
policy within this academic year without taking into
consideration the above mentioned problems,” he added.
Categorically maintaining that the VPP is not against the NEP,
Basaiawmoit said that rather the VPP is questioning the
preparedness of various institutions and colleges to implement
the same within this academic year in the light of the issues
cited above.
“It is understood that the NEP 2020 offers various courses to
the students which also includes vocational courses, therefore
additional classrooms to accommodate the increasing number
of students, and teachers to teach the newly introduced
courses have to be addressed first,” he said.
The VPP president further expressed concern over the
government’s ”unwillingness” to create teaching positions in
the colleges which compels the college authorities to create
their own teaching positions, which are not at par with those of
the UGC sanctioned posts. This results not only disparity in
terms of pay scales, but also in terms of workload.
The NEP 2020 also stresses on the need to ultimately give
autonomy to colleges, which will make it difficult for the state
government to regulate the functioning of colleges and
institutions, and therefore give them freedom to decide on the
fee structure which will have a direct bearing on the students
especially those from poor background
The VPP also reminded about the decision of the state
government to accept the CUET without taking into
consideration the problem that the students have to
encounter.
“A large number of students have been denied admission for
their undergraduate courses due to lack of examination centers
in the State and could not appear for said cuet exam.
Therefore, the Voice of the People Party does not want the
same fate to await the students with regards to the NEP,”
Basaiawmoit stated. (NNN)
