Many children in the village of Umiong in Rambrai area of West Khasi Hills have become dropouts after their school was closed and moved 16 kilometres away, the FKJGP has discovered.
The pressure group conducted an inspection of a government-aided school in Umiong on April 23 and found that it, the only lower primary school in the village, had been abandoned for the past six years.
The school had been moved to Nongkroh village in 2014 and many students had since become dropouts as they could not travel the 16km to Rambrai to go to school.
The FKJGP condemned education officials for allowing the school to move to Nongkroh, a village that already had a lower primary school. The group also lamented that the children who dropped out will have lost out on the midday meal scheme.
“We also condemn the MLA of Rambrai and the MLA of Nongstoiñ, who signed the recommendation for shifting the school from Umiong to Nongkroh,” the pressure group said, adding that it will look into the matter further. “If they have shifted the school then the government should give Umiong another school so that the children are not deprived of their right to education.”
