Over INR 5 crore spent on upgrading schools

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Feb. 16 (EMN): The department of School Education has informed in its annual administrative report 2019-20 that the state-level education committee (SLEC) had approved upgrading of Government Middle School (GMS) Thilixu to Government High School (GHS) under district education officer, Dimapur, and more than INR 5 crore spent on upgrading schools in several places.

According to the report, an amount of INR 1 crore had been earmarked for the printing of local dialect textbooks for elementary school (class 1-8). It went on to add that INR 3.5 crore was provided for construction of six high schools at Longching, Zuketsa, Chunlikha, Phoyisha, Rüzükhrie and Nerhema, while INR 1,50,85,000 was provided under state plan for construction of GHS Chiesezou in Phek, SDEO office Niuland, Dimapur, and staff quarter (flat type) in Kohima.

The department received a total of 73 high court district sessional and motor accident tribunal court cases during 2019-20, out of which 21 cases were disposed of and 52 cases were still pending as of January 28, 2020. Between January 2019 and December 2019, the department received 85 right to information (RTI) applications from within the state, out of which 78 were furnished, while all the five RTI applications filed from outside the state were furnished. It went on to inform that seven RTI applications were transferred to other public authority and two withdrawn by the applicant. It is said that not a single RTI was rejected.

The report stated that 1,57,510 students—1,19,144 from primary, and 38,366 from the upper primary—were covered under the Mid-day Meal scheme during the year 2019-20 in the state. It went on to inform that 358 schools have their own kitchen gardens to support the scheme while a similar initiative is under development in 878 schools.

During the year 2018-19, an amount of INR 10,05,29,000 was disbursed to 27,428 students under pre-metric scholarship for minority students by the central government through direct benefits transfer payment mode, informed the report. It added that the department had disbursed INR 25,41,600 to 432 meritorious students during 2018-19 under Nagaland Government School Students Meritorious Award.

Stipend amounting to INR 11,60,000 was disbursed to 1160 girl students in “secondary stage” during 2018-19, while the department also disbursed INR 1.8 lakh to 12 students under grants for children of police personnel killed in an encounter while on duty. Under Chief Minister’s Meritorious Students Fellowship, INR 50,000 each were awarded to 50 top-scoring students (HSLC exam by NBSE) belonging to indigenous schedule tribe of Nagaland and the grant will continue for a period of five years subject to their performance in the succeeding years. The report further informed that four residential hostels were activated in Kiphire, Longleng, Mon and Tuensang districts under Samagra Shiksha during 2019-20.