From Our Correspondent
CHOKPOT, June 4: Meghalaya recently ranked at the bottom of national education reports, and the Rongma Kakija Government LP School in South Garo Hills illustrates why. Despite being the only accessible school for many local children, the institution is currently crippled by chronic teacher absenteeism and a total lack of infrastructure.
Located 10 km from Chokpot near the Nokrek Biosphere, the school is accessible only by motorcycle or 4WD vehicles via a treacherous kutcha road. Established in the 1930s, the school remains a lifeline for the remote community, yet it has faced a decade of systemic failure.
According to local residents, the school’s decline began six years ago when a teacher, Gacheng Ch Marak, was assigned to the post. For four years, he was the sole educator, yet locals allege he skipped classes regularly.
“Most of our children were not even aware of what grade they were in,” a resident said. “Whenever the teacher came, he would conduct exams for all subjects on the same day and distribute results immediately. There was no actual teaching.”
Villagers reportedly made five trips a year to Baghmara to file complaints with the education department, funded by their own pockets. Despite these efforts, the department took no action. The situation only stabilised two years ago when a local woman began teaching at the school, followed by the appointment of the current headmaster, R Ch. Marak.
Even with a full roster of three teachers now assigned, Gacheng Ch Marak continues to skip work. Attendance registers from this year show he took unauthorised leave for over a month and was present for only a handful of days.
The academic neglect was so severe that when the new staff arrived two years ago, students were unaware of their own academic standing. “We had no choice but to place them in classes according to their height because they were completely clueless about which grade they had passed,” a villager noted.
Infrastructure remains equally dire. The school consists of a single 18ft by 12ft room intended to accommodate 58 students across seven different class levels.
“Managing seven classes in one room is chaotic,” said the headmaster. “We sometimes use a small computer room to break up sections, but it is a nightmare. The school has enough land to expand, but without government intervention, nothing will improve.”
Civil society groups have called for immediate accountability. Garoland Students’ Union (GSU) president Jish A Sangma described the situation as “willful negligence” by both the teacher and the education department. GSU general secretary Spensar Sangma added that such institutional apathy is common in South Garo Hills, undermining the state’s claim that education is a priority.
