TURA, July 13: The entire Garo Hills region, particularly the districts of North, East and South Garo Hills, has struggled for decades with inadequate school infrastructure at the primary and upper primary levels, with no real solution in sight in the coming years.
Speaking on the matter, former chief minister and Leader of the Opposition, Dr Mukul Sangma, said the government was clueless about what needed to be done, and its only solution so far has been to award contracts for infrastructure building, limited to some schools.
“This issue has been discussed by many elected representatives on a number of occasions in the House. In fact, in 2022-23, an exhaustive discussion on problems with primary and upper primary education was taken up, focusing on both infrastructure and manpower. Some schools are completely dormant, some have leaking roofs and are unfit for classes during the monsoons, and others lack teachers. I tried to find out why almost 90% of government LP schools were in such a condition,” said Mukul.
He stated that he found most of these schools were damaged by natural calamities, with further decay resulting from a lack of timely intervention.
“That brings out the question of the responsibility of those meant to ensure things are in place, which is governed by the mandate of law.
If they are damaged due to natural calamities, there is a comprehensive disaster management plan in place and dedicated funds under SDRF. Why these were not used is questionable. Moreover, some teachers fail to report these damages as it makes them happier since they don’t have to take classes, leading to dereliction of duty,” felt Mukul.
The former chief minister said he has been using his MLA scheme (SRWP) to renovate schools in his constituency, but having to spend his limited area development funds on such projects made things harder for them. “We have to do it, as depending on the situation faced by those in my constituency, I cannot be a spectator,” he said.
“Currently, hundreds of schools in East, South and North Garo Hills face the problem of rotting infrastructure. The solution this government has come up with is to award contracts worth between Rs 39 lakhs to 44 lakhs for the development of infrastructure in two schools per constituency in rural and semi-rural areas. There are 50 such constituencies, so 100 schools will be upgraded, whereas we have thousands of such schools. What about the rest?” asked Mukul during an interview last week.
He added that he had suggested to the government on the floor of the House to invest just Rs 1.5-2 lakhs per school for repairs rather than spending Rs 38-40 lakhs per school building.
This, he argued, would help renovate classrooms to ensure students do not miss classes during the monsoon. He noted that while the government had accepted this suggestion, nothing has happened since.
“Now they have come up with awarding contracts to two schools per constituency. This is the pathetic response from this incumbent government,” retorted Mukul.
The former chief minister was also critical of the government’s reluctance to recruit teachers despite there being around 300 vacancies each year due to retirements, deaths, or resignations.
“What is the reason that the state government has decided not to recruit when vacancies are there? This, in a way, deprives educated youth from poor families of opportunities to fill these vacancies. It goes against the whole spirit of the responsibilities vested upon the government of the state,” he asserted.
Mukul pointed out that historically, most of these LP schools were actually built by the community and later supported by the government, with the assets still belonging to the people while the government manages them.
“There are a lot of peculiarities in our state. Some villages don’t have the population to support a school. You need to dovetail plans according to the requirements of the state, rather than listen to national-level NGOs who have no idea about what ails education here. If you sit in Delhi and be guided by them, you will miss out on areas of critical concern,” he felt.
He added that, to a certain extent, their government had succeeded in convincing the Centre, leading to schools under RMSA and RUSA being established to fill the educational gaps in the state.
He cited the example of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which made its first investment in human capital development during the previous Congress government, but this was sidelined by the current government.
“Five precious years have been lost by this government, which is now looking at things that should have been done earlier. You look at the quantum of funds available for SSA infrastructure. Despite there being plenty of money, this government has failed to utilise it. SSA and RMSA have been subsumed under this programme, which could have been used. The lack of responsibility and the level of insensitivity towards this crucial sector by the present government is inexplicable,” felt the AITC leader.
