SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Thursday laid the foundation stone for construction of Pomlum Higher Secondary School building at 7th Mile, Upper Shillong. The construction of the building will be funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the “Supporting Human Capital Development in Meghalaya” project.
This initiative is a first of its kind in India with focus on improvement of secondary education and skill development. Under the project, over 100 government-aided private schools in the State will be upgraded to national standards, improving the overall learning environment for nearly 20,000 poor students, 40 per cent of whom will be girls. Training will also be provided to 3500 under-qualified teachers.
Sangma congratulated the Pomlum Higher Secondary School, which is the oldest school in Mylliem area, the SMC and the people of Mylliem on the occasion and highlighted the significant features of the project.
An amount of $100 mn has been approved and sanctioned by the ADB, while the State Government will fund $25 mn of the total project cost. In addition to this $2 mn will be given by Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction for capacity building of civil society organizations and government departments and agencies in the State.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minsiter said that since the project has to be completed within five years and things have to move faster.
“All challenges in the social sector are being clubbed together under this project,” he said.
“We cannot isolate ourselves from what is happening around us globally. We need to equip our children to face the challenges before them and become competent global citizens. For this we need competent teachers to give them the right kind of handholding they need and government has to give the right kind of support, which is why the government was giving continuous training to the teachers in the State,” he said.
He also urged upon students and parents to take advantage of Chief Minister’s Career Counselling & Guidance programme, which, he said, had been started after an in depth study of social challenges faced by the State.
Local MLA and Government Chief Whip, R V Lyngdoh and Home Minister Rosahn Warjri were also present on the occasion.
Earlier, local MLA & Government Chief Whip, R.V. Lyngdoh said that Pomlun School was the oldest school in Mylliem area and called upon the PWD (B) and project officials to expedite work to complete the building within a short span of time.
It may be mentioned that the 72-year old Pomlum school was started during the pre-independence era in 1944 as a primary school. In 1987 it was included in the list of government deficit schools and was upgraded to Higher Secondary level in 2007. Presently there are over 600 students of the areas studying in the school.
