Dhubri, April 30: Poverty-stricken villagers of Shilairpar can finally see a ray of hope regarding their children's education with the opening of Shilairpar Janata Jatiya Vidyalaya by an NGO, which has committed to admit students without any fee.
Shilairpar is 4km from Gauripur town in Dhubri district.
The school will also admit students whose guardians can manage to pay a minimal fee of around Rs 150 every month. The school runs as a deficit one, with the NGO paying the amount that falls short of the total monthly expenditure.
N.E. Janata Assurance, an NGO in Gauripur registered under the Societies Registration Act, established this school on four bighas in 2007 with a few students of the village. Its has now grown to 247 and the first batch of students will appear for the HSLC examination next year.
"There is a government high school located over a kilometre away but its state of affairs is not up to the mark. This new school not only prioritises quality education. It has also opened its doors to poor students of Shilairpar and its surrounding villages," villager Abdul Kuddus Sheikh said. When asked about the functioning of the school, principal Begum Mamata Sheikh said there were 16 teaching and two non-teaching staff in the school who teach Classes I to X.
"Our teaching staff wants to render their services to the society and accepts whatever salary is given. It is a kind of challenge before us to set an example of imparting quality education in a village like this," Begum said.
Vice-principal Ashok Kumar Roy, while echoing Begum, said this area economically backward in comparison to other villages and parents could not send their children to better schools.
President of the school management committee, Kamal Chandra Adhikary, told The Telegraph that the total expenditure of the school stands at around Rs 50,000 monthly, of which collection of fees from the students is around Rs 27,000 and the deficit amount is paid by the NGO.
The infrastructure of the school has been improved over the years and half of the construction is complete. The school was accorded permission to run the institution under the Assam Non-Government Educational Institution (Regulation and Management) Rules, 2007, by the director of secondary education in 2015, Adhikary added.
He said Shilairpar gaon panchayat is a unique village with a mixed population. Yet there is no record of communal clashes or riots, not even during the 2012 ethnic flare-up. "People of different castes, communities and religions live together and maintain peace and amity. We never differentiate between each other, whoever he may be and whatever his religion or caste might be," Gauripur resident Kulodhar Das, who is also associated with the NGO as a facilitator, said.
