100 million dollar ADB project get its base

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, March 24: A 100 million dollar Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project for a secondary school that will upgrade more than 100 government aided private schools in the State got it first base on Thursday. The school is located in Pomlum, Upper Shillong. The aim of the school is to live up to tiol standards, improve the overall learning environment for nearly 20,000 poor students, 40 per cent of which will be girls and also provide training for 3500 under-qualified teachers.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma laid the foundation stone for construction of Pomlum Higher Secondary School and the construction of the school building is being funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the project “Supporting Human Capital Development in Meghalaya”, the first of its kind in India which focuses on improvement of secondary education and skill development.

In his speech, Sangma said, “In such exterlly aided projects, the funding agency looks at the credit worthiness of the state.” He added, “When we took up this social sector project, which is the first in the country, we got all the support we needed.” “Since the project has to be completed in five years we have to move faster”, he said, adding that all challenges in the social sector were being clubbed together under this project.“It is up to all of us to see that the project is a success”, he added. The Chief Minister stressed the need to “set our dreams higher than ever before for the sake of our children and the next generations”.