It is an undeniable truth that the state of Meghalaya faces numerous challenges in the education sector — a large number of under-enrolled schools, fragmented administrative structures, and a complex funding system.
These are the primary reasons behind Meghalaya’s poor performance in the education section, nation-wide. According to the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2021-22, Meghalaya ranks last with a score of only 420.6.
What is PGI?
It’s a tool used by the Department of School Education & Literacy to assess and rank the performance of states and districts in school education. The PGI aims to identify areas for improvement and encourage states to adopt best practices for better educational outcomes.
Out of 12 states that featured at the bottom of the list based on PGI scores, Meghalaya ranks the lowest. Other states in the bottom category also include states from Northeast India such as Manipur, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh.
What Has Led to Meghalaya’s Poor PGI Score?
The reasons are the same as mentioned earlier — lack of proper infrastructure, insufficient classrooms, schools with very low enrollment, poor school governance, and bottlenecks in fund disbursement under different schemes.
To address these issues, the Department of Education has proposed to consolidate various schemes under a single scheme called the Meghalaya Education Grant (MEG) — intended to streamline fund disbursement, improve transparency, and ensure better governance in the education sector without reducing existing financial support.
Complications in the Education Sector?
Just last month, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the government desires to have lesser categories of schools, which will help in better structuring and management of the system, as the state currently has too many categories of schools. But he assured that the government will consult all stakeholders on this before it decides on the matter.
“Now, bringing them all under the same board or same categorization will need us to consult deeply with the teachers, managing committees, stakeholders and therefore we have a plan and we are consulting with people,” Sangma was quoted in one of the media reports.
More about MEG?
Under MEG, schools and colleges would receive grants based on key indicators such as enrolment, fees collected from students, infrastructure needs, and performance, while gaining greater autonomy in managing staff and resources.
The proposal seeks to ensure more effective use of public funds and better educational outcomes. The Department invites constructive feedback from all stakeholders to refine the approach and build a more efficient and inclusive education system.
A Closer Look at the PGI Scores
Let’s briefly look at the specific weaknesses Meghalaya faces in education. The PGI evaluates states across six domains:
>> Learning Outcomes and Quality
>> Access
>> Infrastructure & Facilities
>> Euity
>> Governance Processes
>> Teacher Education & Training
According to this breakdown, Meghalaya scores relatively well in the Equity domain — which assesses inclusion and social justice in education, especially with respect to marginalized groups such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and girl students—areas where Meghalaya shows relatively balanced outcomes due to its demographic composition.
However, across the remaining five domains, Meghalaya scored only 215.0 out of 740, pointing to significant deficits in core educational components such as learning outcomes, infrastructure, governance, and teacher training.
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Disproportionate Number of Schools
Another critical issue facing the education system in Meghalaya is the disproportionate number of schools relative to its population size.
Even though Meghalaya’s population is smaller than Tripura’s and similar to Manipur’s, the number of schools in Meghalaya is significantly higher than in other northeastern states.
Notably, 29% of all schools in Meghalaya are aided institutions, a sharp contrast to the national average, where aided schools make up less than 5% of the total.
Enrollment Crisis
This large number of schools has created several problems. One key issue is very low student enrollment. Many schools operate with extremely low numbers of students, some with none at all.
Across all school types — government, SSA, deficit, and ad hoc — data shows:
>> 206 schools have zero enrollment (no students)
>> Around 2,269 schools with single-digit enrolment
Breaking it down:
Among Deficit and Adhoc schools: 18 have zero enrollment, and 1,141 schools with single-digit enrolment.
Among SSA schools: 30 have zero enrollment, and 268 with single-digit enrolment.
Among Government schools: 11 have zero enrollment, and 132 with single-digit enrolment.
This highlights the urgent need to consolidate schools, especially those with few or zero enrollment to better allocate resources, improve infrastructure, and strengthen the education system.
Complications of Grant-in-Aid Schemes
In recent years, the education department has implemented many types of Grant-In-Aid (GIA) schemes for privately managed schools and colleges.
The types of GIA schemes include:
Deficit GIA, Deficit Pattern, Adhoc GIA, Night/Morning Adhoc Secondary Schools, Science Grant, Hindi Grant, 4th Teacher Scheme, Inclusive Education (IE) Volunteers, Pre-Primary Grants, SSA Schools Managed by Private Organizations and Non-Government Schools
The sheer number of GIA schemes has complicated governance and administration, becoming a major obstacle to improving the education system.
This structure has existed for many years. The MEG scheme is a proposal to address these issues — aiming to streamline fund disbursement, enhance school management, and uplift the quality of education in the state.
Govt funding to schools & Colleges
The State Government currently pays the salaries of 39,951 school teachers and 1,399 college lecturers across the state. A majority of these are employed in private institutions. This scenario is quite unique and unlikely to be seen in any other state in the country.
What stands out is that private college lecturers under the deficit GIA system earn the highest average monthly salary of ₹1,83,004, which surpasses even the ₹1,27,163 earned by their government counterparts. This is primarily due to a larger proportion of private lecturers receiving UGC pay scales, while relatively fewer government lecturers are beneficiaries of such pay structures.
In total, the State Government spends ₹2,197.39 crore annually on salaries for school teachers and college lecturers. Of this amount, only ₹723.94 crore—roughly 33 percent—is allocated to government teachers/lecturers. The remaining 67 percent, a substantial ₹1,473.45 crore, is disbursed to teachers/lecturers of private institutions. This distribution reveals the extent of the government’s financial support to private educational institutions.
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Challenges of Teacher Absenteeism, Proxy Teachers, and Salary Disparities
Under the current GIA structure, salaries for teachers in private institutions are sanctioned directly by the government, limiting the authority of School Management Committees (SMCs) to regulate teacher accountability. This has led to concerns such as absenteeism and, in some cases, the use of proxy teachers—especially in the Deficit system.
Another pressing issue is the stark salary disparity among teachers within the same school. Government-paid teachers may receive ₹1,00,000 per month, while equally qualified teachers paid by SMCs might earn only ₹10,000. This imbalance creates dissatisfaction and undermines morale of teachers.
Empowering SMCs to manage salary disbursement would not only enhance accountability but also promote fairness and stronger school-level governance.
In view of the different challenges and rationale, it is proposed to consolidate various Grant-in-Aid (GiA) schemes into a single, unified framework, to be called the Meghalaya Education Grant (MEG).
“This consolidation of schoools and grants is very important. It is because of these complexities in the education system (that we require) simplifying them and once simplified, we will be able to talk about more quality education and policy intervention,” Education Secretary Swapnil Tembe said.
