Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu requests MLAs to procure aid for schools

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Assam's Education Minister Ranoj Pegu has requested all MLAs of the State to "inspire" individuals and organizations known to them to provide desks-benches, fans, water filters and other amenities to government and provincialized schools within their respective Legislative Assembly Constituencies (LACs).

In a recent letter to the legislators, Pegu mentioned that there is a shortage of basic amenities such as desks, benches, ceiling fans and water filters in many Government and provincialized schools. "The presence of such amenities is essential for a proper teaching-learning environment," he said, and added that while the government is trying to provide these facilities, "there is a lack of funds at present to fulfil these needs and it may take a long time to do so."

Pegu mentioned that the Prime Minister has launched the 'Vidyanjali 2.0' programme which provides a platform to any individual, retired officers, businessmen, youths, social organizations and the private sector to contribute voluntary services and assets to various schools through the Vidyanjali portal.

As such, the Education Minister requested the MLAs to enlist the help of persons or organizations known to them for providing required amenities to various schools under their constituencies.

Meanwhile, some Opposition MLAs reacted adversely to the Education Minister's appeal. They said that Pegu's letter exposes the extent of financial crisis that is being faced by the state government.

Following the negative comments, Pegu clarified before the media that the 'Vidyanjali 2.0' portal is entirely operated by the Centre to link civil society and the community at large with schools in order to obtain required assets by way of donation. Pegu further said that his remark regarding lack of funds has been misinterpreted. He said that he was merely referring to the composite grant funds available with various school management committees (SMCs) or school management and development committees (SMDCs).

It may be mentioned in this context that a letter was sent recently by the Mission Director of Samagra Siksha, Assam (SSA), which informed the Deputy Commissioners of all districts of the State, along with the Principal Secretaries of BTR, NC Hills Autonomous Council and Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, that there is a shortage of basic amenities such as desks, benches, ceiling fans and water filters in Government and provincialized schools. The letter had further stated that as of now, there is a requirement of 2,06,464 ceiling fans in 31,353 elementary and 4,040 secondary schools of the State.

The SSA Director's letter had stated that "it may take some time" for the Government to meet this requirement. As such, all Deputy Commissioners were asked to seek the assistance of alumni and the community as a whole by way of donating ceiling fans to the institutions concerned in view of the fact that "alumni & community are two important stakeholders of (the) school education system and have a great role in improving different development activities of the schools."

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