Shillong, July 06: The State Government has carried out one of the largest school renovation drives in the history of Meghalaya under Mission Education, the flagship school infrastructure programme of the Government of Meghalaya.
Under the programme, 1,607 Government Lower Primary (LP) schools have been taken up for repair and renovation across the State. Of these, 1,391 schools stand fully renovated, over 86 per cent of the total, and work on the remaining 216 schools is in progress.
Mission Education is being implemented in all districts and covers lower primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary schools. The Government has committed close to Rs1,000 crore to the development, renovation and construction of Government schools.
Education continues to receive the highest departmental allocation in the State Budget, reflecting the priority the Government places on the sector.
The renovation and upgradation has been taken up in phases. Alongside the repair and renovation of 1,607 LP schools, the Government has built new and upgraded LP and upper primary (UP) school buildings, 191 LP and 7 UP schools were completed under Phase I, 100 LP schools under Phase II, and 117 LP schools are being delivered under Phase III.
Under Phase IV, over 180 new LP and secondary school buildings are currently under tendering to replace older structures. In all, more than 2,000 LP and UP school works have been taken up under the mission.
Renovation works have restored roofs, walls, flooring, doors, windows and finishing across LP and UP schools, while newly built and upgraded schools are being provided with additional classrooms, furniture, libraries and proper sanitation facilities.
Upper primary schools have also been covered under the mission, including Government UPS Mowkaiaw in West Jaintia Hills and Nogorpara Government UPS in South West Garo Hills, both shown below.
The progress is documented school by school, and many sites have been recorded through geo tagged, time-stamped photographs. Isolated pictures of a few schools that are yet to be taken up do not reflect the position across the State.
The verified record shows that the large majority of Government LP schools have already been renovated or are under active renovation, with the balance being completed in a planned, phased manner.
Meghalaya has close to 15,000 elementary schools, and the Government has been clear that a transformation of this scale is being delivered in stages rather than all at once.
