Itanagar: Due to a significant decrease in student enrollment, many government schools in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Subansiri district are on the verge of shutting down.
On Thursday, district education officials briefed Education Minister PD Sona, his advisor MLA Mutchu Mithi, and other stakeholders during a follow-up chintan shivir. They highlighted the issue of low enrollment in many government schools in the district. The meeting was attended by district administration and education department officials, ZPC, ZPMs, student union leaders, CBO members, and other relevant stakeholders.
Arunachal Pradesh Education Minister PD Sona revealed that 36 schools have already been shut down, and another 11 are proposed for closure.
He stated that out of the 72 government schools in the district, 36 have already been closed, and there is a proposal to close an additional 11 schools. This would leave only 25 schools functioning in the entire district.
He cited the issue of low enrollment and high pupil-teacher ratios as major concerns. The minister stressed the need to consolidate schools and allocate resources more effectively.
While reviewing the condition of schools and their enrollment numbers, the minister suggested closing and merging the secondary schools in Hong, Hari, and Tajang villages. These schools have enrollments of 59, 40, and 26 students, respectively.
The minister attributed the poor state of these schools and their low performance to the excessive number of government-run schools in the area.
All the stakeholders, however, requested the minister to give them a week to decide on the selection of schools for closure.
In addition to school closures, the meeting addressed other educational challenges. The Deputy Commissioner of Lower Subansiri sought assistance to operationalize the district’s polytechnic college.
“Given the presence of many higher education institutions in Ziro, there’s a significant student population who could benefit from diploma courses at the polytechnic,” the DC said.
He also proposed introducing the Apatani language as a third language in private schools.
MLA Mutchu Mithi expressed optimism about Ziro’s potential to become an educational hub. “Ziro has the potential to become the educational hub of not only Arunachal Pradesh but the entire northeastern region, he said.
ALSO READ: Arunachal Democratic Party seeks inquiry into alleged illegal mining in Longding & Changlang
He said that the consolidation of educational institutions would lead to better resource utilization.
Sona also held a similar meeting in Kra Daadi district, discussing strategies to improve the quality of education and address challenges faced by schools in the district.
