Shillong, Oct 27: Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, today, inaugurated the NEC-funded Building, RUSA funded Infrastructure and Approach Road to College of Teacher Education (PGT) at Shillong. The function was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong and Commissioner & Secretary, Education, Dr BDR Tiwari.

PGT has rendered its service to the community and to the State by grooming teachers who shoulder the responsibility of educating our children. We hope that the new infrastructure will further their efforts. I wish the teachers & the aspiring teachers the best! pic.twitter.com/UFAYMtVsEb

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) October 27, 2022

Speaking during the Inaugural Address, Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, said that given the fact that there is a huge demand for seats in the college therefore there is an urgent need for the expansion of the college. “The college has been doing very well and there are large number of students who seek admission into the college therefore the expansion of the college is needed and I am happy to see that some expansion is taking place,” he said.

He also added that Education has been one of the top priorities of the government in spite of numerous challenges in the sector in terms of lack of infrastructure, training for teachers, different category of teachers which cannot be changed in a short time as a lot of factors are involved which requires a systematic change. He also informed that cess collected from minerals is being used in Education for which is it meant.

The Chief Minister also informed that government works on budget that is allotted for every department and a balance has to be maintained among different sectors. “As much as Education is important there are other sectors like health, roads, agriculture, youth, women all these sectors are important and government has to strike a balance among different sectors and there in comes the question of financing these sectors therefore streamlining Education is a huge challenge,” he said. However, he added that small steps take and keeping the momentum can make a difference.

He also said that as Education is an important sector teachers play a very crucial role and the different teacher training programmes of the government focusses on holistic training of the teachers. He urged the college to continue to focus on compassion, professional excellence and ethically sound teachers which are crucial aspects of teacher training to achieve the ultimate object of producing responsible and productive citizens which is also the larger goal of the government.