The school attends to Class VI to X and has 68 students in total with two regular teachers and four utilised under the SSA. The school has five classrooms, most of which may crumble any time if any strong winds come along. There is no library or laboratory and the only toilet is ‘unusable’.
TFM News Service
Even as the Manipur government raves about its flagship programme ‘School Fagathanshi Mission’, conditions of some schools on the out tell a different story.
One such school is the Saiton Government High School under Bishnupur district, which has not been looked after for the last 25 years. From school buildings in a shambles to inadequate teaching and non-teaching staff, the condition of the school tells a tale of government apathy and neglect.
Members of the Socialist Students’ Union of Manipur (SSUM) along with a team of media persons on Wednesday visited the school to take stock of the ground reality.
Saiton village is located in Moirang Tehsil of Bishnupur district in Manipur. It is situated 7km away from sub-district headquarter Moirang and 30km away from district headquarters Bishnupur. Saiton, with geographical area 4525.76 hectares, has a total population of 4,660 peoples. There are about 860 houses in Saiton village.
The school attends to Class VI to X and has 68 students in total with two regular teachers and four utilised under the SSA. The school has five classrooms, most of which may crumble any time if any strong winds come along. There is no library or laboratory in the school and the only toilet is ‘unusable’. Construction for quarters for the teachers, which started in 2016, remains unfinished.
Headmaster of the school Ningombam Iboyaima informed that the six teachers had to fill up for other subjects as well. The education minister even visited the school on April 10, 2019 and assured to develop the infrastructure but there has been no development. Informing that he will retire in October, 2020, the headmaster lamented as to the future of the school.
Ningombam Iboyaima further said that as the number of poor families in the state are quite high, their children rely on such schools. But due to the lack of teachers and any meaningful infrastructure, the fate of these students remains uncertain, he said and urged the state government to look into the matter so that the number of students are increased in such schools.
Informing about the difficulties faced while teaching in the school, some teachers said that they remain in constant fear as the roof might collapse at any time.
SSUM president Soraijam Yaima said that one Tiken was in-charge of building the school infrastructure. Since 2016, he has allegedly taken out Rs 9,94,790 and Rs 13, 69,000 as the first and second installment. Yaima demanded that the state government should take necessary action against such individuals who are looting the public money. There are apprehensions whether such people are trying to decimate public schools, he added.
While appreciating the efforts of the state government for its ‘School Fagathanshi Mission’, whereby developing some selected model schools, the SSUM president lamented that the conditions of schools in far-flung areas remain dilapidated. He urged the government to look into the condition of Saiton Government High School before physical classes begin.
As part of the month-long celebrations of the birth anniversary of Lamyanba Irabot, the student body distributed chicks and ducklings to the students of the school so that they may earn some money during the pandemic.