Tura: The Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) results for Meghalaya have been declared, revealing a persistent issue: Garo Hills continues to lag behind, dragging down the overall pass percentage of the state.
Despite a marked improvement, with Garo Hills registering close to a 36% pass rate this year, there remains a significant gap between this region and the rest of the state.
Interestingly, nine students from Garo Hills made it to the merit list, including the state topper. Tura shone the brightest, with eight of the nine top students hailing from the town. Sherwood School, as usual, stood out as a beacon of excellence.
However, the overall picture remains grim. What really ails education in Garo Hills, and can the region overcome its entrenched challenges?
Historically, Garo Hills has trailed other parts of the state for decades, with the gap widening over time. We examine some factors contributing to the persistent educational lag.
Primary Education
The foundation of education begins at the primary level. While schools are present in almost every village in the region, many have been without teachers for years. This absence has deterred students, with many willing learners forced to walk miles to attend nearby schools. The lack of school teachers in many of the remote parts of the region had a serious impact on the quality of education.
The recent recruitment of teachers has been controversial, as many new hires possess D.El.Ed degrees from online courses lasting only 18 months. The Supreme Court has mandated that only regular D.El.Ed qualifications are valid for government teaching jobs, creating a precarious situation for the state’s education system.
Additionally, infrequent quality checks by education authorities exacerbate the issue. In Khasi-Jaintia Hills, regular inspections lead to better outcomes, a practice lacking in Garo Hills. Consequently, teachers often perform poorly without fear of repercussions.
Many students, especially from rural areas, struggle with basic concepts even after passing the primary level, hindering their progress in secondary education.
Urban-Rural Divide
Urban schools consistently outperform rural ones. Towns like Tura, Phulbari, Dalu, Baghmara, Dadenggre, Williamnagar, Resubelpara, Mendipathar, and Ampati have delivered exceptional results compared to rural areas. This disparity is partly due to the prevalence of private schools in urban areas, which have produced all the toppers in the past decade. The quality and seriousness of education in government schools, especially in rural areas, leave much to be desired.
This can be narrowed down to the fact that urban areas have more private schools than government schools. In the past decade, all toppers in Garo Hills have come from towns and primarily from private schools.
Many rural schools, including some prominent government institutions, report single-digit or zero pass percentages. Without a push for better results, improving education in these areas may take decades.
Access to labs, extracurricular activities
Science and Math are major scoring subjects in the SSLC exams. Success in these subjects often hinges on access to science labs, which many schools in both rural and urban Garo Hills lack. A teacher from Tura noted, “Hands on learning stays with you longer while theory takes a while to get used to. However, unlike schools in other districts, many schools in both the rural and urban belt still do not have access to something like a science lab. This has led to many students grappling with concepts that would otherwise have been easier to understand in a practical mode,”
The absence of such facilities leads to high failure rates in Math and Science.
The diverse classification of schools is another ailment. Deficit, adhoc, SSA, government, and private—complicates the situation. Many schools struggle to pay teachers’ salaries, making hands-on education a pipe dream for most students.
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