The people of Arunachal Pradesh have voted generously in favour of ruling BJP and ensured their landslide victory. Majority of state’s electorate have felt that they are the fittest to pull them out from a plethora of problems they are experiencing not just temporarily, but over a long period of time. Education, particularly school level education is one such and the continuous poor pass percentages in board exams over the years have not only raised levels of discontentment among parents, it has also tarnished the image of state to a great extent when placed in national education canvas.

Early this month CBSE results of classes X & XII were declared and when all India pass percentage for class XII is 83.4, in Arunachal it is 41. 96. If this is shameful when compared to national figure, the real area of concern is that it had slipped further down from 2018’s 44.33. CBSE class X results of the state this year has at least something to cheer, since pass percentage has climbed to 41.13 from 2018 figure of 21 per cent. Again, it is still abysmally low when placed beside national pass percentage of 91.10. And the schools that have contributed most to these shabby figures are a good number of government schools although some of them had done exceptionally well. But amidst this gloomy atmosphere, private schools in overall have continued to perform well.

The reasons for this regrettable state of affairs is not unknown and are often discussed in multiple fora participated by people from all sections of Arunachalee society. It’s primarily due to lack of infrastructure as well as acute shortage of teachers. A huge percentage of schools do not have drinking water supply, libraries, laboratories and proper sanitation facilities. These are in addition to insufficient desks, benches and irregular supply of text books. Primary schools run by single teacher is a common feature and a big concern is the backlog of huge vacancies of teachers, mostly in Maths and Science, the subjects that deserve most attention. And the sight of schools continuing in makeshift structures and also those on verge of collapse, endangering lives of students and teachers are also not rare. Literacy is the most effective catalyst of socio-economic growth & development and without bringing qualitative and quantitative improvements to the state’s school education structure, these bigger dreams can never be materialized.

The BJP government which will be starting a fresh innings within a few days from now must take this as a challenge and walk that extra mile to overcome it, since it’s altogether surmountable with time-bound plans of action under proper monitoring  and total dedication.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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