Shillong, July 9: In a major announcement, Meghalaya Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma on Monday informed that the government will implement the roster system for recruitment of teachers in all government-aided schools and colleges.
Highlighting the current staffing needs, the minister revealed that there are over 800 vacancies in higher education, with more than 400 of these positions slated to be filled in the near future.
Incidentally, this comes weeks after A’chik Conscious Holistically Integrated Krima (ACHIK) had served a 7-day ultimatum to the state government for immediate ‘retrospective’ implementation of the reservation roster. It had demanded implementation of the Roster System retrospectively in all public sector organizations, departments, and educational institutions.
It is to be mentioned here that the State Government has put into effect the roster system for recruitment in all of its departments and institutions in order to maintain the State Reservation Policy, which dictates 40 percent reservation of all posts for the Garo community, 40 percent for Khasi-Jaintia Hills communities, 5 percent for other tribes, and 15 percent for general category.
There have been lot of voices rising, especially from the Khasi Hills, to revise the State Reservation Policy, which was introduced in 1972. At the same time, the Garo community has been demanding adequate representation in the government posts as they have not been able to enjoy their 40 percent share of reservation as they were unaware or they did not diligently follow this up in every recruitment.
This has created a difference of opinion as the government, following directions from the Meghalaya High Court, decided to strictly implement the reservation policy by drawing a roster system for each department and clearly specifying seats or posts for each tribe. The Khasi community is upset because they argue that their population has increased several folds in the last 50 years and their quota was combined with the Jaintia community, meaning they are actually getting lesser reservation.
 had served a 7-day ultimatum to the state government for immediate ‘retrospective’ implementation of the reservation roster. It had demanded implementation of the Roster System retrospectively in all public sector organizations, departments, and educational institutions.){kind=link}