By Our Special Correspondent
SHILLONG, May 18: Samanong village, located hardly 18 kilometres from the West Jaintia Hills district headquarter of Jowai, is home to Samanong Non-Government Lower Primary School, established in 1971. The old school building adjacent to the new one is a dilapidated wreck. The Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council built a new school building in 2015-16 but there are no separate classrooms for the different classes and there are only two teachers teaching over 80 children. Inside the classroom, the benches and desks look like they need a fresh coat of paint. The ceiling is leaking because the construction materials are of inferior quality. The window panes are all broken and cement sacks prevent rain water from entering.
Just a few kilometres away from Samanong, a politician and minister of the MDA Government has built a resort with two swanky buildings, one of which is complete and the other is still under construction.
This is the irony of Meghalaya today.
Before any place is identified as a tourist destination, the elite tribals have acquired land and created infrastructure from which they and their families benefit.
In Samanong, there is only one LP school. After the kids have passed Class 5, they have to attend the Upper Primary School in Moosakhia, which is over 5 kilometres away. Without any public transport linking Samanong to Moosakhia, the children not only have to walk to school every day in the sun and rain, but also cross a river. Naturally, most students drop out of school. What’s also seen are young girls, aged between 10-12, stunted but carrying their baby sister or brother on their backs while their mothers go to work.
The Shillong Times contacted Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui, who is also the local MLA, for his comments on the said the institution. Rymbui said the school is a non-government school and he has been extending assistance at his personal level to support its development. He pointed out that the government is already bearing the salaries of the teachers of the school. Rymbui further said that improving educational institutions should be a collective responsibility involving the government, the community, elected representatives and local residents.
According to him, the education sector in the state comprises different categories of institutions, including government schools, non-government schools, community-run schools, religious body-managed schools and private schools, each with its own challenges and stakeholders. “This is both the beauty and the challenge of the education sector. In government schools, the government should take full responsibility, but in the case of other categories of schools, the responsibility has to be shared,” he said.
The minister added that the government is continuing with reforms aimed at ensuring that all schools, irrespective of category, are provided with basic infrastructure and essential facilities.
The people of the areas are all agricultural labourers and their ability to support the school is minimal. They said that it is the responsibility of the government to provide education to the people and to upgrade the school from a Lower Primary School to a Middle and High School to enable the children to continue their studies or to create transport facilities for the children to be dropped and picked up from the High School in Moosakhia.
Meanwhile, Rev HH Mohrmen, who is presently working with the villagers of Samanong to promote agri-tourism through the Society for Urban and Rural Employment (SURE) — an NGO that is training the youth on self-employment such as being tourist guides and other tourism facets such as preparing food for tourists etc. — stated that Samanong is a census village and the government has the responsibility to provide quality education to the children of Samanong. Mohrmen said that the Education Minister cannot wash his hands of the school by calling it a non-government school.
“It is the duty of the government to provide the infrastructure for quality education, else it is failing the people,” he added.
