GUWAHATI: A youth club in Kinangaon, an interior village under Chaygaon legislative Assembly constituency in lower Assam’s Kamrup district, has chosen to go off the beaten track to help motivate students against dropping out from school.
As a matter of fact, the drop-out rate, in the absence of high schools, in the remote area inhabited mostly by Garo families, has been very high for decades now, prompting such a move.
To start with, the Kinangaon Youth Club has for the first time since its inception in 1985, organised a counselling programme for eight successful HSLC candidates of the village on Saturday evening.
Chonme D. Sangma, a teacher of Don Bosco HS School, Boko, interacted with the eight students and shared tips regarding their career path. She also encouraged the students for the better results in future.
The students are among a fortunate few from the village to have enrolled in private schools, mostly in Boko, about 12 km away, as most guardians in the area cannot afford the privilege.
Kinangaon has just one lower primary and a Middle English (ME) school.
“A majority of the Garo boys and girls in Kinangaon, as well as in the nearby Garo villages, drop out of school before completing their high school education,” Phantom O. Sangma, vice president of the club, rued.
“So we wanted to set a precedent to motivate not just these eight students to do well in future, but more importantly, help students of the middle and primary level schools at Kinangaon get over a problem that has plagued many in the area for decades now,” Sangma said.
The club will also be arranging free coaching classes and tuitions in the near future for those in need and whose guardians cannot afford to put their wards in private schools because of the higher fee structure.
“We are thinking of helping students in the nearby Garo villages as well. Slowly but surely, more encouraging programmes will be taken up even for higher secondary students. However, we would seek cooperation from guardians so that their children have better education and good careers in future,” he added.
Asked about the high rate of school dropouts, Sangma cited manifold reasons, the primary being the absence of a high school in the village. “Besides, most of the villagers are uneducated, cannot guide and instead prefer their wards to help them in the farm lands. Besides, financial constraints also compel many parents to abstain from enrolling their children in high schools outside the village,” he said.
Most of the families send their children to Kinangaon LP and Kinangaon ME School. Thereafter, some have little option but to opt for Gohalkona High School, the nearest high school about 10km away, while many drop out because of the distance.
