- NET Web Desk
Children of Myanmar nationals, who fled the country after military coup in February 2020, got enrolled in schools across Mizoram free of cost, informed an official on Tuesday.
The initiative has been undertaken on humanitarian grounds based on the ‘Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education’ (RTE) Act, 2009 promulgated for children aged between 6-14 years.
According to the Education Department director James Lalrincchana, the admission processes have commenced from August this year.
“We can’t ignore the request of migrant Myanmar leaders. We can also face backlash from the international community unless education is provided to the nationals, who fled their country due to humanitarian crisis,” – asserted Lalrinchhana.
Lalrinchhana further informed that a total of 1972 children hailing from Myanmar comprising of – 1010 boys and 962 girls are currently enrolled in different standards of government schools, functioning across the state.
The Education Department director highlighted that aforementioned figure is bound to increase as continuous record is updated every week, and the state have been witnessing large inflow of refugees.
Lalrinchhana informed that, separate medium of instruction or teacher never stood to be an obstacle as most of these children understands Mizo and English.
According to education department data, the highest number of these refugee students is in Champai district with figure – 711, Lawngtlai – 539, and Hnahthial – 341.
In the state capital of Aizawl, 70 such children have been enrolled.
Around 122 such students have been enrolled in pre-primary students standards, elementary (class 1 to 8) : 1704, for high school (class 9 and 10) : 140.
While, the remaining 6 students have attained admission in higher secondary (class 11 and 12).
Police reports informed that over 13,000 Myanmar nationals are currently residing in the state, while a small number of such refugees continue to cross the border everyday.
Local people, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and churches are providing them relief materials, to prevent any further grievances.
Furthermore, central assistance have also been requested by the state government but the centre is yet to respond on the same.
