Shillong, Oct 13: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today interacted with the inaugural cohort of the Chief Minister’s Leadership in Education and Development (CMLEAD) Fellowship at an induction ceremony held at the Chief Minister’s residence in Shillong.
During the induction ceremony, the Chief Minister and Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui handed over o laptops to the inducted fellows.
The CMLEAD Fellowship is a state-led initiative of the Government of Meghalaya that embeds skilled young professionals within the state’s education system to accelerate reform, one district at a time.
Fellows will be placed across all 12 districts of Meghalaya. There they will work closely with Samagra Shiksha, the Directorate of Educational Research and Training (DERT) and district education offices to support the design, coordination and rollout of priority initiatives aimed at improving student learning outcomes.
Explaining the thinking behind the fellowship, the Chief Minister said governance cannot be only a political, bureaucratic or administrative exercise. “Participation from community, participation from society” is essential, he said, to judge whether the government is achieving its real goals.
“Making a new building is not making education necessarily better. It is providing the infrastructure. But education becomes better when that building helps a child to get education and the quality of education goes up,” he said. He added that officials and politicians are often so absorbed in day-to-day work that they miss what is happening on the ground, and that the fellows can help bridge this gap.
The Chief Minister described the fellowship as a chance for young people to gain first-hand exposure to public service, an experience he likened to an internship with the government rather than a company.
The Chief Minister urged the Education Department to give fellows specific tasks, targets and a reporting system, with defined indicators and accountability, so that they are not left “moving around with a laptop.”
He suggested that, at a minimum, each fellow visit one school a week and report candidly on what they see. This could include the condition of buildings, toilets (including separate facilities for girls), furniture, and the quality of learning, drawn from conversations with students. He added that the department is better placed to finalise the indicators.
Beyond their formal duties, the Chief Minister encouraged fellows to mobilise communities within their districts. Where a school falls short, he suggested, fellows could approach village headmen, church pastors, students, NGOs to visit the school regularly, volunteer an hour or two, teach English, or “adopt” the school.
The Chief Minister also invited the fellows to put forward suggestions that could inform reforms and policy changes. He encouraged them to embrace the challenges of field postings, including difficult conditions and remote locations, as part of the experience.
“Don’t look at the problems as a challenge, look at it as an opportunity for you to be able to do something to change it,” he said, wishing the fellows the very best in contributing to the education sector.
