Arunachal CM inaugurates permanent campus of Bomdila Govt College

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu along with Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju inaugurated the permanent campus of the Bomdila Government College in presence of Education Minister Taba Tedir and legislators of West Kameng district Phurpa Tsering, Kumsi Sidisow, D W Kharma and Dongru Siongju.

The new permanent campus is situated in the outskirts of Bomdila township, headquarters of West Kameng, in a plot of 70 acres. Established in 1988, the college was being run in a building of the Govt Higher Secondary school in the heart of the township.

Khandu thanked the villagers for donating the land for the permanent campus and said the newly created infrastructure in a perfect ambience at a distance from the town would encourage the students to focus more on education.

He informed that the government is aware of the shortfalls both in manpower and infrastructure of the 19 government colleges in the state, which are all affiliated to the Rajiv Gandhi University, the lone central university in the state at Rono Hills, Doimukh.

“Besides the 19 government colleges, which cater to more than 15000 students, we have 9 private colleges and two technical institutions NERIST and NIT,” he informed.

Khandu said that at present 478 Assistant Professors are teaching in the 19 government colleges whereas about 400 more are needed, besides there is a shortage of about 110 staff in these colleges.

He directed the Commissioner Education to personally process for recruitment of the said manpower by brining it up on file in the Cabinet meeting due to be held in December.

“We will take up the matter in the next Cabinet and approve recruitment of the required manpower through state Public Service Commission and the Staff Selection Board,” Khandu assured.

To the demands for proper internal roads in the campus, enhancement of intake capacity of the boy’s and girl’s hostels and introduction of science stream, he called upon the authorities concerned to process for the same and submit as soon as possible to the government for further action and approval.

Khandu acknowledged the request for college buses as the new campus is at about 6-7 kms away from the main town and caters to more than 700 students.

“As my wife is an alumni of this college she has offered to provide any kind of support or help for it. As a payback to her alma mater she has decided to donate a bus for the college,” he announced while also adding that another bus will be provided by the state government.

Reiterating the state government’s commitment to improve the education scenario of the state, Khandu said the year 2021 has been declared as the Year of Education.

He said despite the fact that the number of government schools has increased from only three since Independence to more than 3000 today, the quality in education hasn’t witnessed the desired rise. The state government is revamping the entire scenario and closing down schools with zero enrollment, he informed.

“We have so far closed down about 400 zero enrollment schools across the state and decided to select one school in each of the 60 assembly constituencies to be developed as model school with all facilities,” he informed.

Khandu called upon community based organizations to visit their areas and recommend which schools may be shut down and which schools in a periphery can be clubbed into one.

“Let’s club schools situated not afar from each other into one and focus on its development with proper infrastructure and sufficient teachers,” he added.