"Other states imitating School Fagathanshi Mission"
Efforts on to cover assets of 1393 schools in state under government: Minister Basantakumar
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, February 23 2023: Education minister Th Basanta Kumar has stated that other Indian states are copying the School Fagathanshi Mission launched by the government of Manipur.

Responding to a policy cut motion moved by the opposition MLAs K Ranjit, Th Lokeshwar and O Surajkumar during discussion on demand of grant for the education department in the Manipur Legislative Assembly on Thursday, minister Basanta stated that the School Fagathanshi Mission has become so successful that other states like Rajasthan, Jharkhand and even Delhi are imitating the Mission.

The mission was introduced under the PM SHRI programme, to address shortage of requisite infrastructures and solve the issue of teachers' inadequacy.

As of now, the Mission has been implemented in 120 schools, wherein 10,600 benches have been distributed, 106 new classrooms constructed and 687 classrooms renovated.

Rs 15 crore has been sanctioned for constructing libraries for the first phase, in addition to Rs 20 crore already sanctioned.

The enrolment rate has improved by 30.69 percent under the mission, he said, while remarking that almost all shortages could be completely addressed within the next two decades.

He continued that the Mission also includes recruiting committed teachers and posting them to schools for a tenure of at-least 3 years, for which the guidelines are already in place.

As such, he urged the members and all stakeholders concerned to support the Mission, while suggesting that the matter of transfer-posting be kept aside.

Basanta Kumar remarked that although the members brought up the matter of transfer-posting, there is no hesitation when it comes to writing DO letters, with some writing over 50 letters a day.

The School Fagathanshi Mission will be more successful if the transfer-posting issue is kept more "protected".

While highlighting the challenges faced by the department in the education sector, the minister said that it must be understood that the deplorable conditions of some schools did not happen in just one day but over a span of 15-20 years.

Nonetheless, the government is trying its best to improve the infrastructures including the shortage of teachers in schools.

In this, transfer-posting poses the biggest challenge in the education sector, apart from delayed promotion of government employees including teachers and unprotected service for years, which are also chronic problems of this sector.

The minister then said the education department is one of the most challenging departments.

However, after the advent of BJP-2, various changes have been witnessed in the last 7 months.

50 assistant headmasters of junior high schools have been promoted to high school level; 4 vice principals promoted along with 24 senior lecturers of government high schools to secondary school vice principals; setting up a screening committee following which 410 non-teaching staff were provided financial benefits under the ACP and MSCP schemes; and reformation of the academic and administrative sectors of the department.

Meanwhile, a technical committee for senior scale, trained and un-trained staff was formed, following which 768 teachers and headmasters were selected and are awaiting approval.

In all, 466 services books will fall under the local audit fund and 10,876 tablets distributed to deserving primary teachers, who are trying to teach the students by accessing the digital portals.

Apart from this, free textbooks are being provided to government-aided schools, he said, while adding female students from Class VII onwards will be donning 'phanek' as school uniform to reduce the gap between government and private schools, in addition to issuance of collared t-shirts, check shirts and others.

Basanta Kumar further mentioned about the free of cost, dedicated education channel, 'Lairik', which is also available as mobile application.

This will greatly benefit students from Class I to XII, he said, while adding that efforts are on to improve the digital learning platform.

On the other hand, 4 junior high schools have been upgraded to high school, while 4 high schools have been up graded to higher secondary school level.

Approval has also been given for taking up vocational education in 20 secondary schools, which will be carried out soon.

500 tablets have been issued to 310 schools as part of digital learning platform.

An office of the command and control station has been constructed at a cost of Rs 3 crore and it will be inaugurated next month.

The centre will be able to assess how the teachers are teaching the students and which teachers are absent, thereby helping to address the issue of lack of monitoring.

Meanwhile, 20 years ago, the assets of schools were not entered into the land records.

As such, after much effort by the department, it was investigated how the schools were set up and whether the head masters and principals had land deeds for the purpose.

In the valley area, around 606 schools did not have proper land deed and thus, the dag chitha of the schools have been collected, while the revenue department has been processing the same for Jamabandi purposes.

Moreover, around 263 government schools had the land recorded in the name of the donor or the secretary.

The process for converting the land record of the schools to the department has been completed.

Meanwhile, around 424 government schools in the hill districts were found not formally allotted to the government.

As the assets of around 1393 schools were found to be not under the government, steps are being taken up to update the same in the name of the government or the school itself, he stated, while adding that transfer-posting will be carried out in cluster, regardless of residential, gender or age.

Basanta Kumar then informed that there are 56 sanctioned posts for principal, vice principal, head master and assistant headmaster.

Of these, there are 56 in-service principals without any vacant posts.

For vice principal, there is vacancy of 56 posts, owing to the promotion of eligible vice principals to the post of principals.

After the government came to power; a list of 1364 senior lecturers was notified, out of which 910 lecturers raised objection, thereby delaying the process as the settlement of the claims took months.

The list for the senior lecturers was finalised a few days ago, he said, while adding that potential vice principals will be appointed from amongst the eligible senior lecturers.

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