TURA: A demand has been made to the state education department to establish an examination centre at Chibinang region of the plains belt in West Garo Hills to ease the difficulties faced by hundreds of Class X and XII students who have no option but to travel to Phulbari town to sit for their Matric (SSLC) and Higher secondary (HSSLC) examinations, every year.
Students from schools such as Jana Priya Higher Secondary School in Bholarbita area of Chibinang and many smaller institutions trek eight kilometres to Phulbari so as to appear for the MBOSE SSLC and HSSLC examinations every year during the Months of February and March.
“The students who are eligible to appear in either of the two examinations had to earlier travel to Phulbari before the new centre at Shyamnagar, 6 kms from Chibinang, began functioning,” informed Ishraful Haque, president of the Anti-Corruption and Human Development Organization (ACHDO). His organization is moving the government to establish an examination centre at one of the biggest and oldest education institutions in Chibinang region- the Jana Priya Higher Secondary School itself.
“Because of the distance children have to pay to travel on public transport to the exam centre and many of those who are not financially stable opt out of the exams which raises the percentage of school dropouts. There are also instances of children missing out on examinations due to absence of public transport from their villages to the centre.
The road from Chibinang to Phulbari is also one of the most dilapidated in the entire region due to years of neglect. Innumerable pot holes dot the length and breadth of the Phulbari-Chibinang stretch of the road which has been termed by commuters as ‘hell’s stretch”.