Mon, May 20 (MExN): The Tobu Area Students’ Union (TASU) on learning about the needs of education for the least privilege people living at the “isolated” Obay Hoangup, inaugurated the Hope Academy Obay building under its ‘Teach for Tobu’ initiative.
The overall functioning of Hope Academy Obay will be privately sponsored by TASU. The building inauguration was held on May 20 in presence of SP Chemang Village Council Chairman, Pessao as special guest, stated a press release issued by the TASU.
The programme was chair by Speaker TASU and welcome address and the notes of appreciation were delivered by President TASU and Education Secretary TASU respectively. The academic class will start from June 1.
Obay Hoangup is an extended small village (not recognized), located around 15 kms away from Pessao, the mother village bordering to Myanmar.
“The exterior location of the place subjected the citizens to be deprived of everything as the people of this village could not easily access to the modern facilities like road communication, quality health service, education, drinking water, proper sanitation etc,” stated TASU.
Besides that, the citizen of Obay Hoangup were totally influenced by the opium addiction till the late 2016 before the mass movement against opium trafficking which was initiated by the Joint Action Committee Against Opium Addiction (JACAOA) in collaboration with TASU.
‘Teach for Tobu’ is the initiative of TASU with an aim to reorganize and empower the community for developing strong sense of ownership in the upliftment of education sector at the grass root level. With support from federating student units and VEC/TEC, TASU have propose to Education Department for adoption of one school each from Pessao Village, Yongkhao Village, Tamkoang Village and Monyakshu Village after taking necessary approval from the VEC/TEC and the student union concern.
Preliminary discussions regarding the adoption programme of schools have been discussed with Director of School Education on March 19, 2019 at Kohima.
The Village council and VEC/TEC showed concern and interest in improving the education system and they are also optimistic that this initiative would benefit the students tremendously.
Proxy teachers, absence of teachers and mismanagement of school funds are quite prevalent among all the schools across Tobu Area. The bogus enrolment of students, absence of teachers for long period of time without any leave has been identified despite of strict order and monitoring done by different agencies. According to the baseline assessment conducted by the TASU in the month of June and July 2018, 25% of the teachers have been found to be proxy out of which majority of them are found to be under matric which clearly indicate the lack of concern and negligence towards the education by the community members.
Through ‘Teach for Tobu’ initiative, the union in last four months (February-May 2019) have contributed 10 pairs of desk and benches each at GPS C Monyakshu and Pessao, support of Hindi teacher at GPS B Yongkhao and GPS Tamkoang, additional teacher at GPS B Monyakshu, GMS Monyakshu and GPS Pessao Changlu. Formation of Parents and Teachers association was implemented with an idea to create a platform for sharing support, knowledge, and experiences and to foster collective action for change. Conducting of monthly review meeting among the staff, organizing awareness program for the parents and VEC have been some highlights under the initiative.
