Nongstoin school completes 25 yrs of educating needy children free of cost

SHILLONG, Dec 26: The Ri-Khasi Free Morning Upper Primary School in New Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills, has completed 25 years of providing free education to underprivileged children.
Set up in 1996, the school — which is the brain child of noted educationist Kenneth Shadap —organised its silver jubilee celebration recently.
While speaking to The Shillong Times, Shadap said that he decided to set up the school out of the wish to reach children that belonged to economically weaker background.
Sharing the journey, he said it was extremely difficult for him to manage the school initially since he had to pay the salaries to the teachers from his own pocket.
After school started receiving ad hoc grants from the government, things started to get better.
The founder of the school said that the school at present has six teachers who look after around 150 students studying in Classes VI, VII and VIII.
Informing that ad hoc grants are received and used to pay salaries to the four teachers, Shadap said he is shelling out money from his purse to pay honorarium to the remaining two teachers.
“We are trying our best to produce children who are real and productive citizens of the society. I can proudly say that none of students are exposed to any of the bad habits during the three years they spent in our school,” Shadap, who is also the president of Meghalaya Upper Primary School Teachers Association (MUPSTA), said.
He also said that wants to upgrade school up to the secondary level.
“It is easy to start Class IX and X. But the difficult part is to manage the salaries of the teachers. I would not like to charge anything from the students. My ultimate goal was to provide free education up to Class X,” the founding member of the school said.
It may be mentioned West Khasi Deputy Commissioner Garod LSN Dykes and District School Education Officer (DSEO) Lata Syiemlieh, besides the Rangbah Shnong of New Nongstoin, Srally Rashir among others were present during the silver jubilee celebration of the school.