Reaffirming his government’s push to overhaul the state’s school infrastructure, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Monday announced that 135 prioritised schools will be taken up for upgradation under Mission Education Phase IV in 2026-27, with a fresh allocation of ₹131 crore.
Presenting the state Budget, Sangma positioned Mission Education as a calibrated, phased intervention aimed squarely at strengthening government Lower Primary (LP) schools — a segment he described as the foundation of Meghalaya’s schooling system. “For 2026-27, a total of 135 prioritized schools will be taken up for upgradation under Phase IV of Mission Education. I am allocating an amount of ₹131 Crore for the continued implementation of the Mission. We will also upgrade infrastructure at Captain Williamson Sangma University, and I am allocating ₹30 Crore for the same,” he said.
The Chief Minister underlined that the Mission is exclusively targeted at government LP schools, which number about 2,500 out of nearly 14,000 schools across the state. “From the Government point of view, Government Lower Primary Schools there are about 2500, out of the 14000 schools. So, this mission education is for this government schools,” he said, seeking to dispel confusion over the scheme’s scope.
Highlighting progress so far, Sangma noted that over 2,000 government schools have either received new buildings or undergone major renovations. “We have already either given new buildings or renovated 2000 plus schools from the government once, and then we’re going to finish the rest also,” he said, adding, “Also, all of them don’t require new buildings, Some of them just require renovation and which we are doing. So by next phase we should be able to cover almost all the government LP schools.”
In a pointed reference to criticism on social media and in sections of the media, the Chief Minister said isolated images of dilapidated schools were often being cited without clarity on their category. “Secondly, every now and then we see pictures of somebody will posting or media posting, saying government is saying education school Mission school but look at the school and they click a picture and send it. Now first of all we have to understand what is that school, is it an Ad-hoc, is it a government school, is it SSA school, is it deficit school, so let me be very clear that We are only mentioning the government LP schools, so that could be a picture of an Ad-hoc school or SSA school, which we have not started yet, which we’re going to do at a later stage, but yet, SSA, Ad-hoc schools and all from MLA schemes they’re doing on their own. Sometimes from CM SDF, I am giving to a lot of Ad-hoc schools, SSA schools a support because school is a school.”
Explaining the rationale behind the phased rollout, Sangma said financial constraints necessitated prioritisation. “Now, why aren’t we doing the others right now? Because obviously funds are limited, so we have to start somewhere so we decided to start with government LP schools,” he said.
Tracing the origins of the Mission to 2019, the Chief Minister recounted how the programme began with modest funding before expanding steadily. “Again, this is a decision I took in 2019 Where education department brought a budget of ₹2000 crores to me and I says look I don’t have ₹2000 crores right now but start with ₹100 crores and now just while going moving along suddenly we look back and we have almost completely two thousand plus schools. So that’s how we decided and we move forward,” he said.
Reiterating the limited but focused nature of the scheme, Sangma added, “So I just wanted to make it clear, very clear that this does not include Ad-hoc, SSA deficit schools or any private school. This is purely government schools slowly Once we finish this phase, we will then get into the other infrastructures in schools, we’ll get into other aspects of rationalising schools. We’re going to the aspect of helping Ad-hoc schools and SSA schools also.”
Mission Education Phase IV to Cover 135 Schools; ₹131 Crore Earmarked: Conrad
