SHILLONG – Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui has strongly backed Commissioner and Secretary Vijay Kumar Mantri after the Voice of the People’s Party (VPP) demanded his removal, calling him one of the Education Department’s hardest-working and most accessible officers.
Rymbui did not merely defend Mantri’s record. He challenged those seeking his removal to identify an officer they believe could do the job better.
“If anybody can identify an officer who would be more efficient than Vijay Mantri, kindly identify,” Rymbui said. He also rejected the VPP’s criticism that Mantri does not listen to teachers.
“To say that the commissioner doesn’t listen to the grievances of teachers is completely wrong,” the minister said. Rymbui pointed to the teachers’ hunger strike at Malki as one example of Mantri’s involvement. He said the officer twice went to meet the protesting teachers as the government’s representative while discussions were underway on a new pay structure.
“When teachers were on hunger strike in Malki, he went twice as the representative of the government to tell the teachers that we are coming up with a new pay structure,” Rymbui said.
The minister also credited Mantri with helping drive the structured pay framework, which replaced the earlier ad-hoc arrangement.
Rymbui said the previous system could treat a teacher with 30 years of service in the same manner as someone who had just entered the profession. The new framework, he said, brought greater recognition and security based on service.
School rationalisation was another point on which Rymbui stood behind Mantri. He cited the imbalance in teacher deployment, where one school could have three teachers for three students while another with 200 or 300 students had only two teachers.
“Rationalization is the way forward without affecting the position of the incumbent teachers,” he said.
Rymbui also criticised the targeting of officials implementing difficult policies, warning that it could demoralise the administration.
Rymbui also said, Mantri may not be able to resolve every grievance, but that does not make him inaccessible or ineffective.
“Whether he can settle the issue is a different matter altogether, but he patiently listens, has the ability to understand the team, and solves issues,” Rymbui said.
He acknowledged that policymakers are not perfect, including himself, but said the government would continue correcting its approach.
