Meghalaya seeks Rs52 crore for teachers training

Meghalaya government has sought Rs 52 crore from the Centre for training its teachers as part of the implementation of the Right to Education Act.

"With the Right to Education (RTE) Act in the pipeline, we have decided to seek Rs 52 crore from the Centre to provide professional training to as many as 22,000 teachers," Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said today.

She said the government wants to improve the education scenario of the state and therefore there is an urgent need to train the teachers to ensure that the faculty imparts quality education to the students.

"A huge number of teachers are doing their job without any professional training. The Central guidelines would be followed during the teachers' training. Only 3500 out of 5000 had cleared a teachers' training programme conducted under the Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) recently," Lyngdoh said.

She pointed out that around 19000 students failed to clear their secondary and higher secondary level exams this year in the state. "This clearly shows the standard of teaching. We are emphasizing on systematic changes in the educational set up meant for secondary and higher secondary level," she said.

The Meghalaya government expects to fully implement the Right to Education Act in the State by 2012.