Education was always close to my heart in several ways. My father was a Mathematics teacher at a Private School. He was my role model right from the early days. His students had so much respect and love for him. I was not surprised with that as I always saw him giving his everything for them. He was passionate about teaching. Actually, to be more precise, he was passionate about helping people and this was the way in which he was manifesting that. My other favorite people were always my teachers at school. I loved how much they cared for us. How they went all out to explain their subjects and even beyond. How they were like our parents at school. As a student, I loved to learn new things. So much so that I almost never missed school. I seriously do not remember taking any leaves at school. Of course, at that early age you do not see the colossal impact Education has on nearly everything.
Interestingly when I was posted in New Delhi as Assistant Secretary after the IAS training phase, I was attached to Ministry of Education. Of course then it was called as the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). It was for a brief period of three months but that gave me this avenue to see the larger picture of the whole country in terms of education parameters. I was also closely working with the NCERT officials. A name that I saw on all my textbooks all along the school days but had no idea what it was. This stint surely cemented by interest in this sector and I could see myself returning to Shastri Bhawan in the future. The point being the fact that universe was always hinting on my proclivity towards this field.
After working in Garo Hills for little over six years, I got my first posting in Shillong as Director of School Education & Literacy and State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan. Education scenario in Meghalaya is pretty complex and vast. More so for school education wherein you need significant time to even understand the fundamentals of the system. The legacy issues make it even more of a challenge to reform. But I was elated to be given an opportunity to contribute towards education. I vividly remember the first day at DSEL and for the context to the uninitiated, DSEL stands the Directorate of School Education & Literacy. I had never been to this office before and the first glimpse was quite overwhelming. The building as a whole was quite huge as it housed several other offices as well. But it was in a terrible shape in several ways. The exterior was totally discolored, and the interiors were no good either. The rooms were stuffed with several unwanted things which seem to be lingering on for decades. I resolved on day one that this has to change. And that change had to be imediate. I sat down with all the stakeholders and we came up with a plan to renovate the whole space in the coming few months. It is astonishing to see what colors can do to the morale of the workforce.
We did not stop there of course. This is an office which is frequented by teachers and people from the field of education every day. And hence it was decided that the walls should not be blank. They should speak volumes. They should speak about what we wish to achieve through education in our state. They should speak of the various on-going schemes in the field of education. They should speak of what we have achieved thus far and what we plan to in the coming times. And few months later, we had these colorful murals all over the office space. They kind of lit up the whole space. So much so that now these murals have become selfie points for people passing by and our office space now seems more like an art gallery.
In the initial months, I observed that there are a lot of people who work really hard in the office but there were several factors which perhaps discouraged them from giving their best all the time. I felt that these contributions should be highlighted to inspire others. So we started recognizing these contributions in the form of the ‘Employee of the Month’ awards. And through this a very interesting thing happened. During the discussions for the possible nominations every month, the members started sharing interesting stories about the staff and how they have gone the extra mile at times to get the works done. Through these deliberations we discovered so much about the staff. We started putting up a big photo of the winner every month out on the notice board which got compiled into a nice frame at the end of each year. Every time I pass by these frames, they remind me of their great contributions, and I am sure it boosts the morale of everyone else too. Recognition of efforts made gives a further push and they were motivated to do even better.
Sometimes the problem which prima facie looks very complex, if broken down into smaller ones, suddenly becomes solvable. To improve the work space, we started working on the fundamentals without wasting too much energy getting overwhelmed with the magnanimity of the problem. We got the computers replaced, we developed certain portions of the office into cozy sitting areas where they can take a break, we reworked on the room allocation to make it more structured and several other things. I realized that the office is not having a space where staff and sit peacefully and eat their lunch. Once we cleared the roof which was once filled up with tons of discarded stuff, we had a beautiful space with us which could be developed into a small dining and we did exactly that. All these small small things eventually had a great impact on the morale of staff and the results were very evident in no time.
In this age and time, we do end up spending most of our time in office and with our colleagues, subordinate and superordinate folks. It eventually becomes your second family. And ergo, it is important that we bring this family together and make the bonds even stronger. To do that, we started celebrating several occasions be it festivals or days of national and state importance. That got the whole team to bond and to know each other better. When you know about the people you work with, you tend to understand their viewpoints better. This ensure that the conflicts or misunderstanding are reduced and there is synergy in our collective efforts. I really think we give our best for the people we know and for the ones we understand. All these efforts to help staff bond with each other has had a magical impact on the overall functioning of the office.
To improve the public service delivery, we started with the system of weekly reviews with all the officers and senior staff officials. Education is such a sensitive subject in our state that there is always some immediate works which pop up every day. But that should not make us drift from the fundamentals and to get things in order. One of the common complaints received was the delays in release of salaries of teachers for various categories. The number of categories makes it so complex that I would need another blog post to just explain it you. No, I would rather need a book to explain. But when we sat down every week, we did a lot of introspection of what is going wrong. There were also several issues of long due promotions for the staff and the teachers. We did a lot of things to improve all these and I am happy that positive results are here to see for everyone. But the challenges remain and we must continue to reform.
Training is a quintessential component of growth and with the recent developments in A.I and LLMs, I really felt that all our staff must learn these models. So, I arranged a training for them on ChatGPT which was anchored by the Meghalaya Administrative Training Institute (MATI). After the training, the draft letter and order which the dealing assistants came up with were so details and comprehensive that most did not need any improvements. It saved their time as well and make the whole process much faster. On a lighter note, they even started using ChatGPT to improve their leave applications and it became a challenge for me to counter such well worded and structured leave applications. We also did a health camp and a session on Office Yoga for all the staff which was super useful. I always believe that our health is the most paramount thing and when we feel good about our health, we blossom in whatever we take up.
In the Farewell yesterday, one of the staff said in his speech that I had given so much to this office and to the staff but they had nothing to give back to me. In my speech which followed, I corrected him. All the officers and staff of DSEL, you have already given a lot by believing in those ideas, by being a part of the process, by accepting the challenges and by walking along together. Initiatives become successful when all stakeholders play active part and you all have done that. Gratitude to each one of you for all everything. For the love, for the belief and for the leap of faith.
*********
