AMPATI: For the first time since creation of the district, South West Garo Hills joined the rest of the world in celebrating the International Literacy Day in a befitting manner at Ampati on Friday.
Organized by the District Unit of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), the celebration began with a march to spread the message of the importance of education by the students, teachers and district SSA team including the DMC, BMCs and cluster resource persons through the streets of Ampati.
The celebration focused on spreading inclusive and unbiased quality education based on the theme “Importance of Education”.
In his address on the occasion, the Deputy Commissioner & Chairman of the District Unit, SSA, Cyril V. Darlong Diengdoh touched upon various aspects of literacy and stressed the need to ensure that students at the elementary level are given basic skills of reading and writing along with other lifeskills. While acknowledging the fact through several interventions under SSA the district has managed to bridge the challenges in providing universal access to education, he however regretted the poor performance of the district students in SSLC and questioned if justice was being done to our children when only 26 percent of the students are able to pass the SSLC exams.
Admitting the challenges faced by some of the teachers, he also said that irregularity of attendance by many school teachers and also poor implementation of Mid-Day Meal in many schools was not acceptable.
He reminded all stakeholders including the school managing committees, teachers and parents of their role in ensuring strong foundation for the children right from the elementary level and urged upon them to rededicate themselves for the cause of ensuring holistic education and all-round development of the children.
Additional DC & PD, DRDA, H.D.B. Sangma in her brief address also stressed the need to reinforce elementary level of education. Pointing at the kind of life skill education being provided to children in KGBV schools, which is one of the interventions of SSA, she gave a suggestion that if other elementary schools in the district could incorporate basic life skills for complete education of the children, they would be able to bring the desired transformation in the lives of the children and the education scenario in the district.
EAC & District Mission Coordinator, SSA, D.A. Sangma, Block Mission Coordinator, Zikzak, T. N.Marak and one of the students, Elsadora G. Sangma also spoke on the occasion, while Block Mission Coordinator, Betasing, L. M. Sangma gave a power-point presentation on the status of implementation of SSA by the South West Garo Hills District Unit which was established only on November 1, 2016.
Distribution of educational kits to out-of-school children and children with special needs as part of the enrollment drive and presentation of songs, dances and skit on the importance of education were some of the highlights of the days celebration at Ampati.