Mizoram education reforms commission submits report

In its endeavour to improve the education scenario of the state of Mizoram, certain steps were taken by the state government in Mizoram.
Among all the steps taken, setting up of Education Reforms Commission, which is the first of its kind in the country can be rightly called as a landmark policy.  In fact no other states in India have ventured to set up an Education Reforms Commission to review the education system in their states. The Commission set up on June 9, 2009 under the chairmanship of Prof. A.K Sharma to review the education system of the state.
The Commission had submitted its report to state chief minister Lal Thanhawla on Friday last in Aizawl by the Commission Chairman Prof. A.K Sharma. Lal Thanhawla expressed his happiness to chairman of the Commission Prof. A. K. Sharma and his team of 10 members for finishing the task of preparing a comprehensive report for education reforms in Mizoram in eleven months and said that copies of the report would be presented to the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson.
The Commission suggested recruitment of only trained teachers asking the state government to stop recruitment of untrained teachers. It also suggested that for the improvement of higher education, 20% of the education budget was sought for infrastructural development purpose.
The Commission supports the government initiative of Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for the unskilled and disqualified teachers and suggested the teachers to atleast do Open & Distance Learning (OLD) in case if the teacher is found not qualified.
The Commission felt it necessary to survey and investigate the process of fee collection, recruitment of teachers, their performances in many private schools across the state. It also asked the Mizoram University to take steps so that colleges under its jurisdiction get accredition from NAAC and task force to be set up to study colleges who have below 200 students in its enrollment.
The Commission also recommends establishing Industrial Training Institute (ITI), setting up of more Polytechnics and setting of Community College for the Mizo youths. It further suggested to have more vocational education school and is of the opinion to set up more Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jowahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, Sainik School, Sports school in the state.
The Commission also asked the state government to allocate atleast Rs. 50 lakhs for training/seminar of school and college teachers.  The Chairman of the Commission, Prof. A.K. Sharma highlighted that a wide spectrum of issues such as quality of education in relation to academic achievement of students and performance level of schools, drastic reduction of school dropout, development of skills for wage and self-employment through vocationalization of education, rejuvenating curriculum reform process, language development, education in universal human values, overhauling the system of governance have been reflected in the report of the Commission.