Mawkyrwat: Aiming to instill in the students a sense of ‘love and pride’ for their identity as Khasis, the St. Xavier’s Higher Secondary School Umoid, located 10 km from Mawkyrwat in South West Khasi Hills District has introduced jainsem as school uniform for girls thus becoming the first in the state to turn to the traditional dress as uniform.
St. Xavier’s Higher Secondary School Umoid, a Jesuit institute run by the Society of Jesus, started this year. The first academic session started in June 2019 with 57 students comprising 31 girls and 26 boys. In the next two years, a college in the name of St. Xavier’s — from the same family of the St. Xavier’s Colleges and Universities in different parts of India — will be set up in Umoid village.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, Fr. Paul Coelho, Principal, said that the main objective of introducing jainsem as a school uniform is to inspire the students to love their identity and be proud of their culture.
“Education must not alienate students from their culture and their roots. We want them to feel proud of their culture and to love the identity of being members of the Khasi tribe and embrace the culture which is so rich and beautiful”.
Fr. Coelho also informed that the school has introduced ‘jainsem’ as uniform for girls every Wednesday, but for the boys there is no traditional attire because it is too expensive. “The girls wear the traditional dress on Wednesdays. But for the boys we don’t have traditional dress uniform because we were told that it is very expensive,” Fr. Coelho said.
Fr. Coelho also informed that initially the Society of Jesus had planned to set up a college at Umoid village, but with no higher secondary school in the area, they started the higher secondary school instead. “We wanted to start with the college, but we realised that there are no higher secondary schools in this area even though there are many secondary schools. So this year we started with class-XI and it will grow into a college in the next two years,” he added.
He also informed that they have already acquired over 40 acres of land in Umoid village to build a college besides acquiring separate land for the higher secondary school.
