Feb. 2, 2025: If one is shown the picture and its infrastructural condition of the primary school of Nongpok Heirok in Imphal East’s Lamlai AC, then trending buzzword ‘School Fagathansi Mission’ (officially notified for its initiation on 31st May, 2019) would only be nothing more than a hyped that misses out ‘its thrust toward improvement of Govt Schools, both in terms of physical and manpower infrastructure towards learning outcome’.
A little 23 km away from the state capital, the school has adorned itself to become a glorified perfect picture of ‘School Fagathansi Mission’ with its flown-away roof, bamboo poles placing against the walls to barricade the cows entering into the classroom, as there are also instances where the village cow tried to attend the classes, however the students ousted the cows from becoming their classmate in the primary school.
In this Nursery to Class-V standard government primary schools with a total of 65 students, what melted the onlooker’s heart, is that the school has only one government teacher. However, defying every universally accepted rules of student-teacher ratio, the loco parentis keeps sending their wards to schools hoping for their bright future ahead with good quality education.
But thanks to locals, they mobilise their own resources and manages to keep 6 to 7 volunteers to keep the education for their wards on-the-go. And the student doesn’t mind where they sit in the classroom, as due to dearth of table and benches they became immune to their own sitting arrangement in the class room and mid-day meal is just a word left to be loose.
