How a Manipur govt school almost tripled student enrolments in last 5 years
The Wangkhei High School in Manipur’s Imphal district has seen a record enrolment of 1,000 (still counting) students in 2023 against 395 in 2019
A government school in Manipur’s Imphal East district has seen a record enrolment of 1,000 (still counting) students in 2023 against 395 in 2019, teachers said attributing the success to the infrastructure push and innovative teaching methods.
The Wangkhei High School, a co-education government high school, was among the 60 government schools for the 60 assembly constituencies of the state for implementation of the second phase of ‘School Fagathansi Mission (SFM)’-a government initiative for improving school education in the state in June 2021. The first phase of SFM was launched in January 2019.
“The good results in the annual examinations and other various infrastructure development works such as internet, rainwater harvest system, solar power back up etc could be the reasons that the parents are eager to admit their children in our school.” said headmistress Ranjeeta Rajkumari.
The school has had a good number of first divisions in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination in the last five years. The percentage of first-division students in the HSLC examination was 80.5 percent in 2022 against 85 percent in 2018.
“The credit for it goes to teachers and other non-teaching staffs. We’re able to produce good results in examinations because of their hard work,” the headmistress said.
“During the winter vacation, the school used to conduct remedial coaching classes for the HSLC appearing students that brought better examination results,” she added.
A guardian who came for her son’s enrolment in the school echoed a similar line. “We like the teaching methods,” she said.
The increase in enrolment also increased the number of school van operators from 6 (2017) to 16 (2023) and it helped to form one of the first government school van operators’ bodies in the state.
“Initially I drove my daughter to school with my auto rickshaw. But now I’m transporting nearly two dozen students daily using a van,” said K Bipin, a school van operator.
Manipur witnessed an improvement in enrolment in government schools in the state with the proportion of children (age 6 to 14) enrolled in government school increasing from 28 per cent in 2018 to 32.8 per cent in 2022, according to the Annual Status of Education Report 2022.
However, in comparison with the other sister states, Manipur has the lowest government school enrolment as per the report.