Conceived to cater to underprivileged, city school remains in a tight spot

SHILLONG, Aug 31: The Lumshyiap Secondary School, the silver jubilee celebrations for which kicked off on Wednesday here, was set up in March 11, 1996, to cater to the underprivileged local children. However, years later, the school continues to remain beleaguered due to the lack of basic amenities, including a permanent school building for itself.
The programme on Wednesday was attended by Pynthorumkhrah MLA AL Hek, Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah MDC Pynshngain N Syiem, Lumshyiap Rangbah Shnong and president of school managing committee A Khongphai, former Rangbah Shnong, et al.
The silver jubilee celebrations will conclude in December.
It is pertinent to note that the school continues to function from its temporary building at the community hall of the locality.
To add to this, teachers are forced to conduct multiple classes from single classroom.
The forsaken school, located in the state capital, corroborates the sorry state of affairs in the education sector of Meghalaya.
Speaking on the occasion, secretary of Lumshyiap Dorbar Shnong KP Phawa said that some of the teachers are being paid salaries as low as Rs 2,000.
Informing that the school managing committee is not able to increase the salaries due to fund constraints, he said salaries are being paid through ad hoc grant, SSA and the fund received from Dorbar Shnong.
Informing that they had constructed a school building with funds provided through the SSA, Phawa said, “But they cannot shift since we managed to construct only four classrooms. Therefore, we have to continue to function from this temporary building.”
Informing that they plan to upgrade the school to higher secondary level, he said the same cannot materialise in the near future due to factors aplenty.
“We are, however, happy to see the first batch of Class X students clear this year’s SSLC examination with flying colours,” Phawa stated.
Meanwhile, Hek assured his support for the upgrade of the school.
He also informed that many schools from the area could not avail funds under the ADB projects except Pynthorumkhrah Presbyterian Higher Secondary School due to unavailability of land.
Meanwhile, Mawkhar MLA, while lauding that the contributions of the school to impart education to the underprivileged, donated Rs 1 lakh to the school managing committee for the silver jubilee celebrations.