Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has pledged government support in the form of grant-in-aid to bridge the salary gap for teachers employed at Sarada Mission Girls’ School in Khonsa.
During his participation in the Golden Jubilee celebration of the school in Khonsa on Saturday, Khandu not only appealed to the authorities of Ramakrishna Sarada Mission to elevate the school to a higher secondary level but also guaranteed that the state government would handle all the required infrastructure for this upgradation.
“We are celebrating 50 years of the school. It is the right time for the school to upgrade to higher secondary,” he said.
Khandu, on behalf of the people, expressed gratitude to the pioneers of the mission, who had ventured into the state to spread education when basic facilities, particularly communication, were a distant dream in the state.
“My respect and gratitude to the first batch of Matajis, teachers, and staff of the school, who faced all hardships with a smile just to educate our girls and boys. Today, students of this school are serving the state and country in various capacities,” he said.
Khandu also put on record his gratitude to KAA Raja, the then administrative head of Arunachal, for having convinced the RK Sarada Mission to open a school in remote Khonsa.
He also expressed gratitude and appreciation to the Chiefs of Namsang and Borduria for supporting the cause of education and donating 30.88 acres of land for the establishment of the school. He said that their (Chiefs’) foresight has benefitted hundreds of kids become successful in their lives by receiving quality foundations while studying at the school.
Emphasising that schools play a pivotal role in imparting education to children and ensuring their all-round development, Khandu said that the state government is committed to extending every possible support to all organisations like RK Sarada Mission engaged in providing quality education to the children of Arunachal Pradesh.
He observed that people in central and eastern Arunachal were lucky to get Ramakrishna Mission (Aalo in West Siang and Deomali in Tirap) and Sarada Mission (Khonsa) as early as the 1970s.
He said that these schools have impacted the education of children in central and eastern Arunachal, which can be vouched for by the large number of officers from the two zones in government departments.
“Not to deny the quality education offered by Ramakrishna Mission and Sarada Mission to children of western Arunachal, we approached the Mission headquarters, and today we have a Sarada Mission Girls’ school at Dirang (West Kameng) and a Rama Krishna Mission school at Lumdung, Seppa (East Kameng),” Khandu said.
Requesting the mission authorities to support the state government in rolling out the National Education Policy 2020 in toto in all Ramakrishna Mission and Sarada Mission schools in the state.
He further said that the revolutionary policy has to be rolled out in total across the state by 2030, for which the state government has prepared a road map and a task force is working.
The celebration was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, Education Minister Taba Tedir, PHED Minister Wangki Lowang, RWD Minister Honchun Ngandam, Deputy Speaker Tesam Pongte and local MLA-cum-Chief of Borduria Wangling Lowangdong, Pravrajika Anilprana, Secretary, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, DGP Anand Mohan, Commissioner Education Ankur Garg and others.
More than 200 former students also attended the celebration.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues inaugurated two projects of Tirap Police.
These are Phase-I of ‘Tirap Netra’ (IP-based CCTV surveillance system of Tirap district) with 57 cameras, including 8 Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) cameras, and the Netra control room for integrated monitoring of CCTVs at the SP Office. In Phase II, the project will cover check-gates and other town habitations such as Deomali and Lazu.
They also flagged off the first drug rehabilitation batch of 15 destitute individuals from Tirap, sponsored by PGCIL under its CSR scheme.
This is part of Project Pratighaat initiative of the District Police, which is a women-led transformation of Tirap into a drug-free district.
Project Pratighaat involves door-to-door counselling by a team of local women volunteers, a police team, subject experts, and continuous surveillance by the community.